I'm With John Madden: No More Commercial Flying For Me

Chuck Baldwin Ministries ^ | 01-13-03 | Baldwin, Chuck

[Theodore R.]

I'm With John Madden: No More Commercial Flying For Me

By Chuck Baldwin

Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon

January 13, 2004 After retiring from coaching, former Oakland Raiders Head Coach and now popular sportscaster John Madden hung up his wings. He had been forced to spend numerous hours flying commercial airliners with his NFL team, but upon retiring he said, "No more flying for me."

When first approached to take a position as a professional sportscaster, Madden said he would only consider the offer if he could travel to games via a bus. The networks agreed, and Madden hasn't flown since. I think Madden has the right idea.

While Madden's decision to stay out of the "friendly" skies was made several years before the terrorist attacks in 2001 and was doubtless made for other, and more personal, reasons, it seems especially sagacious in light of recent decisions by the Bush administration. According to the Washington Post and CBS News, President Bush plans to color code every passenger who flies a commercial airliner.

News reports state that airlines and airline reservation companies would be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials. The government would then assign a color code to each passenger, ostensibly determined by the passenger's "threat level."

Passengers would be assigned a red, yellow, or green color. A red coded passenger would be stopped from boarding; yellow would require additional screening at security checkpoints, and green would mean only standard security for boarding. The government plans to implement the new system next month.

Reports also quote Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesmen as saying frequent flyers could receive special passes which would allow faster check-in if they were willing to allow the government to access their personal information. Of course, this information would be entered into a government database.

To any person familiar with the incremental methods used by totalitarian regimes to regulate and control their populations, this latest measure being enacted by President Bush can only be regarded as "scary." By now, it should be obvious to every thinking person that the Bush administration is composed of a bunch of "control freaks" who are attempting to turn America into a police state!

Freedom and independence are extremely fragile commodities. They can only be maintained by an alert and vigilant citizenry. Unless the people of the United States awaken from their obvious passivity, what freedoms we have left will quickly vanish!

It's time to face it: President Bush is no friend of liberty, and neither is he a friend to constitutional government nor national sovereignty. Four more years of a Bush administration could very well mean the death knell of freedom in these United States.

The character and constitutional ignorance of Washington politicians being what they are, the only scenario that offers even a modicum of opportunity for freedom to last a while longer is for one party to occupy the White House while the other party controls Congress. It seems party stalemate is about the only thing that is somewhat favorable to freedom these days.

Obviously, the ideal solution would be for Americans to throw off the current two-party system altogether and elect independent men and women of real honor and character who would have the courage to obey the U.S. Constitution and to restore the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, if one wants a foretaste of a burgeoning police state, just try boarding a commercial airline. Of course, once air travel has been completely Gestapoized, it's only a matter of time for ground travel. Until then, however, I think I'll postpone the leap into Big Brother's Brave New World by getting on the bus with John Madden.

© Chuck Baldwin

[Theodore R.]

Wouldn't 95 percent or more of the boarders have a "green" pass?

[Hodar]

To the best of my knowledge, I believe the system is set up as follows:

Red - Known terrorist
Yellow - Past associations with terroristic activities, or criminal history that would create a security risk
Green - Everyone else.

But, there are some who are very paranoid, and having any scheme in place to protect them simply feeds their paranoia.

[BlackbirdSST]

Wouldn't 95 percent or more of the boarders have a "green" pass?

Would they? Blackbird.

[gcruse]

At last the administration is making noises that hopefully mean we will be looking for terrorists instead of weapons. If that is totalitarian to you, Chuckie, so be it.

Comparing the sacrifices Americans made during WWII with what we are enduring now, I'd say we fall into two categories today.

The yellow ribbon brigade who think we will mourn and wail our way to victory.

The Fly the Flag brigade who were outraged by 9/11 and intend to make changes.

I'll put Chuck in with the yellows.

[Terry Mross]

What it should be is:

Red-Arab
Yellow-Muslim
Green-Non Arab and a Non Muslim.

What it will most likely be is:

Red-Blond haired white men and little old ladies
Yellow-The rest of the white men and white women
Green-All Arabs, Muslims and anyone who wears a burka or towel on their head.

Flame away!

[discostu]

Wow, what a terrible job of trying to hook Madden into the new security systems. As an NFL team Oakland, like most teams, primarily flew charter, when you've got about 70 people to get from point A to point B commercial is a silly idea. And he didn't quit flying right after retiring, took him a few flights to realize he was afraid of flying (as a coach he was pre-occupied with games plans and the apprehension was kind of buried under the normal stresses of his job) at which point he swore off. It's all outlined in John's books.

As for the system at hand, this is what happens when people make unreasonable demands. They want a system that will only "hassle" bad guys but won't "profile" based on appearance. Careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And some nice ladies in a library dole out these colors and the information gathered upon everyone who turned out "green" gets shredded every night with no copy kept.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

Remember the mantra of Nazi Germany, that if you had nothing to hide you wouldn't mind the personal scrutiny.

[JETDRVR]

No dis to Mr Madden, the networks do charter private aircraft for conf championship games and of course the SB.Providing lift for network big wigs and broadcasters/wives girlfriends etc etc. Now this doesnt make them bad people ;)

[Doctor Stochastic]

Green: Democratic Party Contributor.
Yellow: Unknown.
Red: Republican Party Contributor.

[BlackbirdSST]

Red - Known terrorist Yellow - Past associations with terroristic activities, or criminal history that would create a security risk Green - Everyone else.

Why would tickets even be sold to either Red or Yellow folks? If they know you are Red/Yellow, why are you walking around Free? That would leave US Green people Free to travel un-molested by the TSA goons. Call it paranoid if you wish but there is something more nefarious going on here. Blackbird.

[Hodar]

I flew SouthWest airlines a couple of weeks back. They had a nice newly re-furbished aircraft, with leather seats (or at least leather where your body sits, fabric elsewhere). I couldn't help but ask myself "I wonder if this is cow-hide or pig-skin?"

[Hodar]

Remember the mantra of Nazi Germany, that if you had nothing to hide you wouldn't mind the personal scrutiny.

In that time, we didn't have idiots content to plant bombs on their children, or fly aircraft full of women and children into public buildings. An action of that scale wouldn't even be considered, for society had rules and more dignity. Now, we have people who actively defend the indefensible. Times have changed, we either adapt or allow these terrorists an unlimited supply of carnage.

[HiTech RedNeck]

We must welcome 1984, because of a mode of attack which no traveling public will ever fall for again?

[MineralMan]

Ah, yes. Chuck Baldwin, who so rarely even mentions Jesus on his web site. What ministry?

Whether or not you agree with the TSA's new color-coding system, Chuck Baldwin is not a great spokesperson for any side.

[Hodar]

because of a mode of attack which no traveling public will ever fall for again?

Are you sure? There are a lot of Air France flights arriving, do you think the French will put up any resistance to hijackers armed with sharpened paperclips and harsh language?

[Bikers4Bush]

Do you mean like the scheme that now allows police officers to set up roadblocks in order to ask the people in cars if they have any information about any crimes committed?

Because the Supreme Court just issued a ruling today that allows this kind of BS.

Call me paranoid, I do not trust that the federal government will not use this info for reasons other than security screening.

[Mr. Bird]

here's an interesting (sad, really) column that discusses Madden's fear of flying. The whole column is very intersting, but the flying stuff is near the end.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/toomay-maddeninfull.html

[realpatriot71]

I probably won't fly again, ever. I drive everywhere I need to go now.

Enjoy the friendly skies

[rllngrk33]

I think the current airline security is something akin to looking on the roof for a quarter you lost in the basement because the light is better on the roof.

We don't have a system to catch terrorists and hijackers, we have a system to annoy and harass people.

If we were serious about security we'd be profiling and looking looking for terrorists, not looking for box cutters and nail clippers.