Reply #28: Here's the money shot [View All]

[Orrex]

However, I am not interested in living my life smoothly. I am interested in living my life on strong principles and standing up for my rights as a consumer, a U.S. citizen and a human being. Allowing stores to inspect our bags at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates an atmosphere of obedience which is a dangerous thing. Allowing police officers to see our papers at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates a fear-of-authority atmosphere which can be all too easily abused.

This could reasonably be paraphrased like this:

I don't care that it was my sister's birthday. I don't care that relatives from across the country had come into town for a family reunion. I don't care that I over-reacted to a store's quite understandable policy of loss prevention. All that matters is that I've decided that we live in a police state, and all other considerations are secondary to my wish to make a political statement, regardless of how trivial and regardless of who might be hurt in the process.

It's my understanding--though please correct me because I could easily be wrong--that the Supremes ruled that it is not unreasonable for police to ask for someone's license. You and I may disagree with that policy, but while the law is in place we must either conform to it or rebel against it and accept the consequences.

Either way, a little girl's birthday was ruined for the sake of a he-said/she-said blog entry.