Imagining Freedom
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by Lesley Swann, Tennessee Tenth Amendment Center

On a typical day, Mary leaves her home in the morning to go to work. Once on the road, her vehicle passes by multiple traffic and red light cameras that monitor her driving in the event that she might break a traffic law. Upon arriving at work, she is monitored by security cameras as she enters the building and rides in an elevator up to her desk. After work, Mary stops by her local grocery store to pick up a few items, where her every move is tracked by closed circuit security cameras from the time she enters the parking lot to the time she leaves. On her way home, she is stopped at a police sobriety checkpoint, where she is required by law enforcement to hand over her driver’s license for review and submit to a breathalyzer test even though there is no reason to suspect that she is impaired.

John travels by plane frequently for his business. Today, after picking up his ticket, he is selected for enhanced security screening. John knows that he can choose to opt out of the body scanners, which take naked pictures of his body through his clothes, because of the questionable safety of the devices. Instead he opts for a pat down. He is required to leave his personal items unsupervised while his body and genitals are probed and prodded by a TSA agent. While he is receiving his pat down, John also notices a small child being subjected to the same pat down. When John’s pat down is complete he is allowed to return to his property, he discovers a TSA agent going through his credit cards, cash, receipts, and other items in his wallet.

Obviously Mary and John are fictional characters, but their stories are real and shared by millions of Americans every day. Our world is one in which we have been so conditioned to tolerate gross invasions of our persons and property that we simply can’t fathom what it is to be truly “secure in our persons.â€