Sequel

Bound to happen again.

     In 1999, I went to Seattle for the first time. This was also my first plane ride. At the time, the environment was laid back. We did not have any color codes of terror in the airport. Nobody had any concerns about airport security groping them.

     I wore jeans and a sweater when I left Boise. Nobody checked anything. No going through anything twice or making any alarms go off. I wore the same exact clothing on my trip back to Boise. I went through and they had to run a scanner thing over me a couple times.

     At the time, there had been a couple of terror attacks. One was in Oklahoma. The other was an unsuccessful attack on the World Trade Center. At the time, we were not concerned with our calls being listened in on. At the time, nobody was focused on Muslims. Not to my knowledge anyway. In fact, we were more focused on the Y2K bug crashing the computers.

     It really made me wonder what made people think that the world would stop turning if the computers crashed. We still knew what day it was, didn't we? People were worried about prisoners being set free too early...which still did not make sense because the world is not ran by AI. Was the computer going to personally unlock the prison gates?

     Even though I was skeptical, the fear had settled into my mind. My brother, of course, did not really care. He didn't realize it was 2000 until several months after the New Year ball had dropped. After yet another phase of paranoia, America had settled down and realized that it was all a fallacy.

     Little did anyone realize that more important events were stirring. The extremists in Arab Nations were plotting against us because they did not agree with us helping Saudi Arabia when Hussein was threatening them. They had taken advantage of our laid back system.

     At the time, travelers from Saudi Arabia could come and go as they pleased. They could get extended stays for business and education. They could come to America to see Disneyland. At the time, the history of their travel to the United States was destroyed. The extremists took advantage of this and went to flight school. Some did not succeed, but they were persistent enough to obtain a temporary stay. Some abused that and stayed longer than their six months. Some even had false documentation of who they were.

     More than half of the hijackers of 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia. Because of our leniency, the terror attacks eventually occurred. We were taken advantage of.

     So, security was supposedly increased at the airports. People were searched at random. Most people were the victim of racial profiling. A mother got in trouble for bringing breast milk. Others were in trouble for inadvertently bringing their pocketknife through.

     After people had been targeted by airport security and the NSA, security measures are being scrutinized. Investigations took place. Security measures were put to the test. Once again, the airports became lad back. Listening in on phone conversations is obviously pointless. We are not paying attention to the fact that we have a lousy immigration system in Mexico while ISIS has allegedly made their way over for some margaritas.

     The Patriot Act went under investigation. The question is, is it really helpful? The answer is no. Clearly, it did not stop a 20 year old from gunning down kindergarteners. Clearly, it never stopped a college failure from gunning down theater patrons. Clearly, it never stopped a couple of immigrants from bombing people running a marathon.

     There were about 70 tests at the airport where people had brought in a weapon. About 60 of them failed. My thought is that they had begun to slack off. Maybe they are too focused on looking for people with a turban and dark skin.

     If I think about it, why go about it like the Soviet Union? Perhaps we should focus on the mistakes we made before 9/11 happened instead of butting into someone else's conversation. My concern is that if we continue slacking off, 9/11 might have a sequel. If anyone knows me, I really dislike sequels.