Friday, September 14, 2007

BRING BACK THE OLD AMERICA

Today I attended a grandparents day at a parochial school down in Central Illinois. I saw something that rarely occurs in America today.

One of the preschooler's parents was wearing a case on his belt that contained a folding knife; when unfolded the knife would measure close to a foot long.

What was amazing, is that no metal detectors were set off. No mass hysteria of an armed man. And most importantly, the building wasn't surrounded by swat teams from every police agency imaginable.

It was considered just a tool that he may use everyday in his work, and not a weapon of mass destruction. Nobody cared that he wore it to school. And the only reason I noticed it and made note, is that I had a money clip with a knife blade of less then an inch treated as a sword as I attempted to board a plane.

Will we ever see the day when we look at things as they really are, and not as a threat against our national security?

2 comments:

JoeC said...

Foot-long knives are ok. Just don't carry a boxcutter around. Sorry,that was probably a bad attempt at a joke, but it's so statistically illogical what people are most afraid of these days. Like a few years ago when the every paper was reporting on every shark bite in the world. Folks were actually staying out of the water at the beach, when the vacation trip in an automobile was many times more likely to kill them.
As for carrying knives and such, might not be a bad time to start a campaign for people to do that...I used to, but don't anymore. Ought to start again...with the current trend, we either use rights or lose them, and sometimes we lose them anyway.

Pelmo said...

Never realize how many freedoms we have given up for the illusion of safety.
Never would have dreamt that there would come a day when I would have to check my pockets to see if I am carrying some sort of contraband, depending on where I am going that day; knowing I will empty my pockets and go trough a metal detector.

Blood wasn't flowing in the streets when I was a kid and everyone had their favorite knife and carried it everywhere. And oh how shocking even to school.