I
suppose that by now everyone has heard of the saga of poor Walied Shater.
He is the self-described hyphenated-American who is charged with the
protection of the President--that is, our President. It seems that poor Walied attempted to board a commercial airliner carrying a loaded pistol.
I suppose that he had a legitimate reason for doing so--after all, Walied is
a secret service agent.
Problem was that Walied's paperwork for the gun wasn't properly completed, or
so the airline says. According to American Airlines, this man who
claimed to be a Secret Service Agent was given a new form and was asked to
fully complete it. Poor Walied
seemed to be incapable of properly completing that one, as well as a third.
Three strikes and Walied was out--out of the airplane, that is.
Why did the
pilot insist that Walied be capable of properly completing this simple form?
Perhaps it was the modern day equivalent of a World War II soldier asking,
"who was the catcher for the '41 Dodgers?" Maybe our soldiers
back then were
really just discriminating against athletically-challenged persons?
This is not an internal conflict in which reasonable-minded people, having
searched their souls, may yet disagree. We
are under attack! The attackers, coincidence or not, Walied, are all
children of Ishmael. But Poor Walied seems to be more concerned about
having been offended than about the 3,500 innocent people who were killed at
the hands of blood thirsty savages just several weeks ago.
Walied, a self described, "Arab-American": went and hired some lawyers for
his racial discrimination case and has been in contact with Islamic-American
groups who will no doubt assist in public agitation. It would appear
that poor Walied thinks of himself as an Arab first and as an American
second and therein lies the danger to our country.
Such persons who hold a greater allegiance to their ethnic group than
to their country are not likely to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe," in order to assure our
survival.
Ya'
see, Walied, the real question is--are you friend or foe? Are you with
us or "agin" us? Come on Walied, you were not arrested, beaten with a
rubber hose or attacked with police dogs. You weren't denied your
voting privileges or held without charges. Your family is not in an
internment camp. Did Airport security strip you to your underwear and feel you up and down "like a
prize steer" as was Congressman Dingell when his metal hip set off the
alarm? No! So what was this
horrible crime committed against you? Someone trying to protect
America and Americans questioned your "authority" and you were offended?
And
another point, Walied--if you do succeed in making the airlines one bit
less diligent in their efforts to screen out potential terrorists--then you
have endangered all of us. Perhaps you think that you have the right to
go through life without ever being offended and your right is more important
than the wartime security of this nation and its people. Your actions are supporting
Osama bin Ladin by suggesting that his claims of
America being anti-Arab or anti-Islam are correct. How dare you do that to us!
Lastly, you have forced the President of the United States to make public
statements regarding your personal confrontation with American Airlines.
If he had said nothing--some Islamic fundamentalist lunatics would have been offended by his
silence, but whatever he does say will certainly offend those same or a
different group of lunatics. He should never have been placed in that
position. You, Walied, a man charged with his protection have placed
him there.
I
know that you say the pilot was unprofessional and he says that you were
angry and hostile. Frankly, I don't care what happened between you and
the Pilot who booted you off that plane.
It
is your response afterwards that has revealed your character (or lack,
thereof) to me. Make up your mind Walied! Are you an Arab with
American citizenship or are you an American who happens to be of Arab
descent? Let all America take note of your decision. Oh yeah, I
almost forgot; it may not matter to you Walied, but that catcher for the '41
Dodgers; his name was Mickey Owen.
Ken Revell is a syndicated columnist.
He may be contacted at
ken@kenrevell.com
web:
www.kenrevell.com
For syndication info.
contact
barbara@mediaflorida.com
