Overheard Starbuck

"Can one say 'bomb' in a crowded airport? Not shout, not scream but in conversational tones to a friend close by and be certain you won't be taken into custody by guards with automatic weapons, interrogated, strip-searched, detained and or arrested and charged with a federal crime?"
---"I don't get it--say it again."
"Would whoopee cushions in an airport waiting room cause a panic? A group of men in beards? More women than not wearing scarfs on their heads--not even burkkas--in these places? A toddler marching up and down wielding a suspicious looking baby bottle?"
---"Damn you sure are obsessed with imaginary oppression. The real thing doesn't do it for you? These are dangerous times. People feel good when they strike a blow against crime and terrorism and help put someone not like them into custody. They won't soon forget how they may have saved hundreds of lives by informing on strangers in already secured areas. Why fault them for needing to feel safer?"
"Maybe the Department of Homeland Security can offer these quick thinking citizens certificates or coupon with which they can purchase, at a special price, framed letters signed by the President and emblems, pins, belt buckles or patches of commendation."
---"They could make it a tv game show and have the audience at home call in and pick out the one person from a group of five most deserving of that weeks arrest and further inquiry. The neighbor or the person in the street who first contacted the shows producers about the suspect can be rewarded with cash, vacation get-aways and the latest consumer items."
"America's Most Wanted for Further Questioning?"
---"Freedom's Eyes."