I share this as a follow-up to Joan Crosby’s October 2 Over the Hill
about the fear-inducing airline passenger security. My mother is 80 years old. My father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, passed away in April of this year. My mother now travels on occasion to visit her children, some who live in states other than her own.
She has never been arrested. She votes each election and attends church regularly. She raised five American children to adulthood.
One branch of my family has been in this country since 1621. The Native American branch of my family has been in this country since before it was a country.
Raised in Germany because her parents could not afford to feed her in the United States during the Depression, she was there during World War II and witnessed the oppressive actions of a paranoid government raging out of control from fright, addiction to power and stupidity.
My 80-year-old law-abiding and loving apple-pie-baking American mother was pulled out of line at an airport, x-rayed and physically body checked. She stated that the she was stunned by the experience and will refuse travel by air in the future if confronted again at an airport screening.
A murdering 36-year-old Tanzanian terrorist was given a pass by a cowardly jury in New York (after affording the right to innocent until proven guilty) while 80-yearold American women are being treated as if guilty until proven innocent.
My mother hopes this never happens to any other older people. Do you believe it possible to stop terrorists by terrorizing Americans?
Alfred Brock
Wayne, MI
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