smooth

I'm actually at the other end of the country--in Orange County. Right in between LA and San Diego, actually. So I consider my chances of being blown to bits quite high.

Regardless of what I can see from my window, I have personal ties to a couple of people who died the day I interpret you to be talking about. And given our past discussions on matters regarding security, personal rights, and government intrusion, I would just let you know that they at least agree with my position. I don't know the opinions of any of the people you personally lost, and I'm not trying to speak for them.

Maybe they would have disagreed with me.

But my friends wouldn't have given up all the other free days they lived to score some political points in real life, on an internet forum, or any other place that I'm aware of. They wouldn't have appreciated being stopped and frisked every time they entered their workplace, or used public transportation, or even just walking down the street.

My friends and family in the active military share a similar view. I would think my position, once people strip their own perspective of political rhetoric, is the one most commonly held among average citizens. Until recently, my position was codified in various protections against personal and official interference without due process or just cause.

I've never taken my safety for granted. I've always recognized that my safety was in careful balance against intrusions of liberty. Maybe that attitude comes from growing up in a metropolis where personal safety is primarily a personal endeavor before it's controlled by the state. But I don't think a large proportion of US citizens, once their personal safety registers aren't constanstly dinged by intentionally instigating presentations of the facts by our current administration and any who follow this example, will agree that agents of the state should be feeling up free citizens--regardless of how safe it may make one feel. Especially bringing gender into it as you so eloquently did. I prefer my liberty sans safety if the latter infringes on the former.

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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman