I hate what has become of our country.

On 9/11, I boarded a flight in terminal A in Newark at the same time (in the same terminal) as Flight 93.

At the time, I was working for (and flying to) one of the airlines whose planes were hijacked.

Midway through the flight to the company’s headquarters, when we realized something was happening and we were being were grounded in Memphis, I called HQ from the airphone and, after my contact told me what was going on, that they had no idea where the planes were, I will never forget when my contact in HQ put her hands over her mouthpiece and whispered, “They’re stabbing our flight attendants.”

Two years later, which was the second anniversay of 9/11, I was on a charity ride that visited all three crash sites. The ride was put on by a bunch of the Ground Zero workers (mostly union guys), along with a lot first responders. When we got to Ground Zero on 9/11, it was the first time I had been there in two years. It was also the the first time I cried openly about that day two years earlier.

I don’t express emotions often, however, ever since then, on 9/11, I usually have a hard time pushing back the tears…and I usually fail.

As I went though Nashville airport this afternoon, having just waited in a long line and having been body scanned, I saw something that also brought tears to my eyes:

As I was putting my belt on, I looked over to where a side room was and saw two TSA agents who were apparently giving someone a behind-closed-doors (presumably) strip search.

As I finished up, I looked up and saw a man in his late 70s or early 80s sitting down, visibly shaken (or humiliated) and the TSA agents giving him back his belongings.

His wife, who had been waiting nearby, came over to help him.

As I walked on, after realizing what had happened to this man who was of the age where he could have easily served our country and possibly had a metal hip or knee (causing the detectors to go off), I felt both anger and sorrow for what just occurred.

There is no way this old couple were radicalized Islamic terrorists. However, because we now live in a country where political correctness has overcome common sense, our elderly are being terrorized.

I hate the politicians and bureaucrats that have created a country where our “security” gives the blue-shirted thugs the ability to do this to innocent people.

May they all rot in hell.
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“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin