Inappropriate Remarks May Result in Your Arrest
“Inappropriate Remarks May Result in Your Arrest”
While waiting in the Houston airport last fall, I heard a
computerized loudspeaker voice repeat this
message every few minutes:”Our current threat level is……orange.
Inappropriate remarks may result in your arrest”.
These words caused me to think about exactly
what I would consider to be an inappropriate
remark.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin,
“Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety
deserve neither”.
While waiting in the Houston airport last fall, I heard a
computerized loudspeaker voice repeat this
message every few minutes:”Our current threat level is……orange.
Inappropriate remarks may result in your arrest”.
These words caused me to think about exactly
what I would consider to be an inappropriate
remark.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin,
“Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety
deserve neither”.
posted by patricia at 6:10 PM
6 Comments:
LOL This reminds me of when I took my kids with me to pick up my aunt from the airport. We had a while to wait so while they sat at a table I went to get them something to drink and I returned to hear my 12 year old telling his sister all about (what he thinks he knows) snipers and bombs etc. Eeeek!
Hello rice,
How unsettling for our children to live in this atmosphere of fear. I believe we should learn to live with the threat of criminal terrorists in the same manner that we deal with other crime. Be wary and vigilant but don't let it change how we live.
Just my opinion........and I am glad I live in a country where I am free to express it in my art !
I can laugh now about the incident. It was not at all funny at the time though. It is very disturbing that those subjects were the first thing he thought about. And the fact that I was worried about being arrested for something my child had said. Your quilt expresses perfectly what I was feeling at the time. Later it seemed a little absurd to have worried that much about it. After reading your post about the recording now I'm thinking maybe I just got extremely lucky.
You know something funny... when you mentioned that your son was speaking of "snipers and bombs" I focused on his fear rather than the threat of your being arrested for something he said. And I just made and posted a piece about just that!
Ding ding.
But you are right, even a child talking is subject to scrutiny these days.
I suspect Ben Franklin would be on the Homeland Security Terrorist watch list.
I have to say when I first glanced at this piece, just having gotten home from a 12 hour night shift and not fully reading your post on the QA list redirecting to it... the first thought in my head was gee it should be titled "Fly the Friendly Skies" (because of all the "smiles" in the sky)... then I saw the hand cuffs and went back to look at the post again. I guess I need to nap before I start doing my email reading... Andee
Hi Andee,
A twelve hour shift..........is that health care? How draining and demanding it must be.
Our "friendly skies" (that gave me a good laugh) are not so friendly or fun anymore, are they?
patricia
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