This Is Not Right

[dogday]

http://www.komotv.com/stories/37150.htm

June 1, 2005

By Kevin Reece

DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.

"This is not right," she told us. It's not right!"

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland.

[The Straight Story]

1. This line says it all

"They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point ... you don't have any'."

[aden_nak]

2. It'd be easier to kill someone barefisted than with a butter knife.

[Tux]

3. Fucked up

That is why I won't fly and will drive instead till this shit is over.

[Richard D]

4. Well

Obviously overkill, but she was carrying on a rather large knife.

Here's the lists of prohibited items: http://www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Permitted_Prohibited_5_16_2005_v3.pdf

[dogday]

5. I just find this all a bit extreme

"You've committed a felony," Beaman says a security screener announced. "And you're considered a terrorist."

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

"I'm a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids," she told them. "I'm not gonna commit a terrorist act." Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure.

[mermaid]

6. This Is The IDIOCY Of So-Called "Zero Tolerance Policies"

Good people, innocent people...get ground up in the gears. and now this woman will be on a "suspected terrorist watchlist" forever. Talk about the ultimate blackball in today's society. Imagine if she ever tries to get another job, or has a criminal background check or a creit check for any reason...and they come up with the fact that she is now a "suspected terrorist?"

McCarthyism, anyone?

Sheesh...but it goes on and on and on in our dumbed-down, brainless, stupid, scared-shitless society. And "Zero Tolerance" isn't likely to go away soon...Republicans love it, because it is a cookie-cutter policy that involves no thought. Cookie cutter thinking for a cookie-cutter society, that is what the Repukes want, and to hell with it if a few good people get ground up in the gears that common sense could've prevented. common sense is an alien concept to many in our society anymore, and good people get hurt by it.

And the more we ACT scared, like we are...the more the terrorists will SEE us as scared...and this will further embolden them to heinous acts against us. Once you get a people scared, it's easy to KEEP them scared. and that is the entire problem with the so-called "War On Terror." It's way too obvious we are scared shitless. We are RE-ACTING...instead of acting pro-actively to prevent real terrorists, and real attacks, we are hewing and slashing around like a great, clumsy SCARED beast.

"Zero Tolerance" fucks up a lot of good people, in a lot of areas. Examples...the honor student who has never been in trouble in his life...helps his grandmother move one weekend. A butter knife falls out of a box into his truck, and kid doesn't know it. School security finds the fucking butter knife in kid's truck at school, and suspends him, unde "Zero Tolerance." He loses his scholarships, he loses a chance to go to a good school...and for what?? because he helped his grandmother move!! This is a real story, by the way.

On a lesser scale...where I work, we have a "Zero Tolerance" policy of sorts. I am a permanent temp...the client company has no intent to EVER hire any of us...they will just keep us as "rent-a-warm-bodies" forever, with no benefits of any kind. They do not train you on new things very well, or, in fact, at all. They simply throw a manual at you, and say, "teach yourself." And then, they act as if it is an imposition if you have any questions, whatsoever. Basically, they give you a hammer and nails, and expect you to suddenly become a master carpenter. Because, if you make three mistakes (no matter how long it takes you) you are fired. And yet, they never trained you...yet they will hold the mistakes against you forever. So, a hundred "atta-girls" don't mean jack shit...three mistakes and it is..."you made three mistakes, you bad girl, you...you're fired!" Of course, THIS, I think is by design. They don't really WANT any of us to stay too long, else the natives get restless, and Heaven forbid, start asking for things like (gasp!) raises, benefits, job security...Heaven forbid, we couldn't have that!! That would cut into those oh-so-important CORPORATE PROFITS...

But, "Zero Tolerance" fucks up a lot of people's lives in a lot of ways, by mindlessly grinding up good people in the gears. And, as I look at my own situation, I have to wonder...are ALL "Zero Tolerance" policies BY DESIGN...intended to fuck up otherwise good people?? Is it the latest vogue tool for governments and corporations to ruin people they want to ruin?

Can you spell McCarthyism yet?

[BurtWorm]

7. It's worse than McCarthyism, which was concentrated in the Senate.

Not to belittle the blacklisted at all, and not to say McCarthyism wasn't a stain on the nation's history. But we've now implemented McCarthyism, made it law. And this kind of...Bushism, is the only word for it, will be very difficult to extract the country from because of that. It may be a generation or more before it's safe to suggest there's something fucked up about this country's chickenshit fear of terrorism, of Arabs, of Islam, of the Third World, etc., without being certain your views will be marginalized or worse.

[mermaid]

11. Glad You Agree With Me

about "something fucked up about this country's chickeshit fear" Because this is precisely my diagnosis.

Is it treasonous for a doctor to correctly diagnose a disease?

[BurtWorm]

13. Amen, sister!

:toast:

You've diagnosed it to a T, I'm afraid.

[getmeouttahere]

10. And the ironic thing about what you've said....

is that conservatives who support crap like this are always the ones accusing liberals of not using common sense!

[getmeouttahere]

8. When stupid things like this happen....

it doesn't help the airline & tourism industry, which in turn ultimately hurts the economy. So BushCo's minions may someday have to decide if they want to continue to be fascists despite the harm it does to their precious capitalist & imperialist aims.

It was an honest mistake, period. Soon so many people will be on these lists they are making that there will be a massive political asylum-seeking movement.

[funflower]

9. Don't they normally just confiscate this stuff?

[dogday]

12. They did along with putting her on a terrorist list and fines

[dogday]

14. Kick