How Many Lives Will Political Correctness Cost Us?

A few years later I was travelling out of Phoenix and in front of me was a 70 year old woman.  She was randomly selected for extra scrutiny by the tsa officer holding a checklist.  He pulled her from a line  including me a 35 year old male, a 50 something Arab gentlemen,  some college age asians and several other travelers that probably all were more likely to be a threat than the grandmother they searched.  The arab gentleman turned to me and said “Do you think that is silly.”  I smiled at him and we both laughed.  I thought our laughter might draw the attention of the tsa but we passed through unmolested.  I asked the guy at the metal detector how they decided who to check and he said it was totally random. 

I understand that some randomness should be used but why not search the likely suspects first and then a few grandma’s just for the hell of it if they have time?  Political correctness is being used to handicap our first line of defense on terrorism and on crime.  I know what it is like to be pulled over simply because of my color.  Believe it or not it has happened to me.  When I was in a neighborhood that the police didn’t feel I should be in.  They bullied and intimidated me, they separated me from my vehicle and my friend.  They asked for consent to search the vehicle which I gave them.   But in the end they let me go because I did not have what they were looking for.  No real harm was done to me other than the extra time it took.  I was completely innocent.  I was simply on my way to work with my friend and we had missed our exit on the freeway and were cutting back through the neighborhood at around 5 am  too get back to the street we needed instead of getting back on the freeway.

What I am saying is the minor inconvenience I suffered is something I am willing to tolerate.   If someone had pushed on the uncomfortable questions to a psychologist who sympathized with our enemies in Texas, twelve American heroes would still be alive today.  30 people would not be lying in a hospital wounded and our Friday afternoon would have been fairly uneventful except for perhaps someone complaining about the unnecessary scrutiny Arab Americans were undergoing.   This to me would have been a much better Friday afternoon.