I Am A Terrorist</b

I am a terrorist.

Well, maybe not technically, but apparently it’s possible.

I’m a truck driver who has an endorsement to haul hazardous materials. In order to keep my job, I’m required to have this endorsement on my driver’s license.

Now, thanks to the brainiacs in Washington, I also have to allow my Constitutional rights to be violated in order to keep my job.

You may be asking yourself, “How?” Well I’ll tell you.

The Sixth Amendment in the Bill Of Rights states that, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

What does this have to do with some faceless 26-year-old truck driver somewhere in Minnesota? Up until a while ago, nothing. Now, everything.

Under the Patriot Act, Congress is now requiring that all commercial drivers carrying a hazardous materials endorsement MUST be fingerprinted and have an FBI background check done. Not only that, but each driver must pay from their own pocket to have this done (the cost in Minnesota is $98).

Even though I have never been arrested, or charged or convicted of a crime, I now am going to be treated like a criminal. I am personally going to either have to pay to have my fingerprints put into a national database (thus having my “effects” illegally seized) and my background checked (thus having my person illegally searched), or I will lose my job.

As for “probable cause,” I guess obeying my employer when he says “Haul this” means I could very likely be a terrorist. Somehow, I must really hate my country and its citizens and everything we stand for. Most likely, I feel pity for the plight of hero’s such as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein who had the balls (or the lack of brains) to fight this Great Satan. I’m probably also hoping for a party full of virgins when I die.

In all honesty, being as how I was raised to have a very deep, very great respect for those who founded this country and the fact that I care about it very much, that “probable cause” kinda hurts a bit.

Requiring haz-mat drivers to be fingerprinted will never stop a single terrorist from doing whatever they plan to do. Do you really think the terrorists on 9/11 ever stopped and said, “Geez Muhammed, maybe we SHOULDN’T hijack this plane. You know it’s illegal to fly a plane without a license…” No.

Instead of calling it the “Patriot Act,” I think we should re-name it the “Pussy Act.” In order to make ourselves feel safe we are willing to give up the freedoms that tens of thousands of people coveted, fought, and died for.

The really shitty part is that giving up those freedoms will never truly make us any more safe. Terrorist never have any problem operating outside the law whenever staying within the law won’t benefit them or suit their goals.

As I’ve said in previous entries, there is nothing at all patriotic with bending over and letting yourself be bound. The people who founded this country knew what it was like to NOT have the freedoms that we do, which is why when they severed ties with England they went through such great lengths to make sure that these freedoms would never be able to be taken away.

Then again, I doubt they ever thought that we’d get so detached and so forgetful of where we came from and become so apathetic and such pussies that we’d actually give those freedoms away without a fight.

They were a nation of mostly farmers and settlers who took on, what was at the time, the greatest and most powerful military force in the world. The Continental Congress never sat around and said, “Maybe we shouldn’t try so hard for this whole freedom thing…some of us or our families might get hurt.” Instead, they signed their names to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which meant certain death for them if America lost the war.

See the difference?

The Patriots of 1776 ran towards danger because they saw it as the only way obtain a freedom that they never had, but would rather die than live without. The “patriots” of 2005 are so scared of getting hurt by a seemingly faceless enemy that they are willing to give up anything as long as they feel safer in the end.

I’ve never really liked the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and most of the times that I’ve heard of them taking a case through court I’ve thought, “These people are such retards.” Yet they have a lot of money, a lot of good lawyers, and love to take up cases of the downtrodden to try and stick it to the government.

Perhaps the enemy of my enemy can be my friend (not saying that the government is my “enemy” here, but they are in this instance).

I’m seriously thinking of sending them a letter and asking them if they have any way to try and get involved to get this law overturned. I’m also probably going to write a letter to a local news guy who likes talking about stuff like this too in order to possibly give this issue a bit more spotlight.

I know it’s easy for people to say, “What do you care if you get fingerprinted if you have nothing to hide?”

It’s true, I really don’t have anything to hide (read my diary more if you think I’m lying). I’m not upset because I have anything I’m trying to hide, I’m upset because of what I’m trying to protect; the very thing that so many people, who were much better than me, died to try give me and my countrymen.

I wonder if this entry will kick up any red flags in some FBI or CIA computers…hehe. Bastards.