Once again, I digress. Today's topic is "profiling." It is a constant buzz-word, as constant issue is taken with various forms of "profiling" by groups from the hispanic community related to anti-illegal immigration to muslim/arab/middle eastern profiling at the TSA.
Guess what, we are all profiled and profile on a constant basis. When you get ID'd to buy cigarettes or alcohol, you have just been profiled. Some clerk at the counter is forming a subjective picture of what you "look like" and making certain assumptions as to your age. This is just one small, quite everyday example, of how profiling occurs everywhere already.
Granted, to live in a society we give up certain rights willingly. We agree to produce identification to the police when requested. People typically understand that the greater good requires their compliance. Except, it would seem, when really IMPORTANT issues like terrorism, rather than underage smoking, necessitates the profiling.
If you want to know my opinion, if you are in the USA, you implicitly agree to abide by the laws, assuming that the law is reasonable and just (perhaps there are better, more to the point terms than "reasonable and just" but I don't have the time to figure them out). I add this caveat to allow for the possibility of conscientous objections or civil disobedience should the law of the land become corrupted and unjust. However, removing one's shoes or burkah at the airport, even having to undergo a more thorough airport screening due to being "profiled" as being of middle eastern or arabic descent, to me is eminently reasonable in a post 9/11 world.
Granted, the anti-illegal immigration profiling fears are a bit more complex. I would guess we can thank our legislators for the fine mess we find ourselves in after decades of looking the other way to illegal immigration.
My main point is that profiling happens daily in many different ways, and I think that people in society generally are ok with it, as long as they understand that they are complying with requirements for the greater good of society (ie safety from terrorism). It is a delicate issue, and those doing the "profiling" need to be well trained and to know the reasons they are doing whatever it is they are doing, and the extent of what they need to know and are authorized to do. Profiling should never give anyone a blank check to violate a person's constitutional rights, but needs to be very specific. Whoever is doing the profiling also needs to be aware of their personal biases. In fact, in the case of security work, this is absolutely something they need to be aware of, lest the would be villans play the security forces for their very own stereotypes.
Forgive me if I am fed up with the constant debate and whining over vital measures for national security, while at the same time government aims to dig its hands even deeper into your life, from charging higher premiums to uninsured smokers, to requiring you to have health insurance, these are definitely topics for other posts. You shouldn't be upset about securing the borders or profiling at the airport. These are matters of national security. You should worry about laws that would require you to eat a certain diet, not smoke, wear your seatbelt, have health insurance, in short, make every decision you make a matter of government, and probably tax it to further divide the uber-rich from the poor, or to make Goldman Sachs quarterly profit tick up another few percent over analyst estimates.
The title of this post should have been back-assward, as that is quite what I think of the voting public.
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