When the Constitution was proposed to our forefathers in 1787, many were concerned that it was not specific enough about the fundamental rights of the citizens. The response was that since the Constitution expressly restricted the government to specified, enumerated powers, and since those powers did not include the power to trample on the fundamental rights of the people, it was unnecessary to expressly prohibit infringements of those fundamental rights. Moreover, the enumeration of certain rights, the responders argued, could be construed as implicitly empowering the government to trample on rights that were not enumerated. People’s concerns however, were not assuaged by such arguments. They knew, not only from their study of history but also from personal experience, that the tendency of governments throughout history was to abuse their powers, especially in times of “emergency.” Thus, the American people demanded that the document be amended to include express provisions for the guarantee of fundamental rights.
That’s how the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, came into existence. The fear was that the federal government would somehow break out of the original Constitution’s enumerated powers straitjacket and misuse its powers to violate the fundamental rights it was charged with protecting. The enumeration of those rights and the express restrictions on government power in the Bill of Rights were to ensure against that happening.
Today, the federal government has done exactly as our ancestors feared and our Constitution is under attack by our own government. They our eroding our rights, accosting the citizenry and ignoring the will of the people.
Take a flight on a commercial airline, domestic or international, you will be subject to an invasive search without provocation, you will be physically accosted in a manner that would be criminal sexual abuse if perpetrated by anyone other than a government (TSA) employee. The bureaucracy created in the wake of 9/11 has become a behemoth to rival the IRS in its power and abuse thereof. Its agents have police/military like power with none of the training or prerequisites required of either. These “agents” are low wage thugs who seemingly go through the motions of their job without the application of common sense required of a McDonald's fry cook. Charged with preventing terrorist attacks, they strip search children, “pat down” inside the undergarments of elderly women and stare at semi-nude scans like lecherous perverts. They needlessly delay millions of Americans daily while embarrassing countless travelers with ridiculous directives, unseemly physical contact and outrageous violations of basic human courtesy, all at the cost of so many billions of dollars that it could not be mistaken for anything besides yet another government boondoggle.
There are thousands of documented abuses by the TSA and many websites devoted to exposing this charade for what it truly is; an expansion of the federal governments power at the expense, both monetarily and of our rights. Google “TSA abuse” and be prepared to be disgusted by what you read and angry enough to write to your Congress Critter.
