I’m sitting near the gate at the Nashville airport listening to some live jazz music, bouncing my foot to the beat. I’ve got my bags packed (carry on only) and I’m pretty confident there is nothing in my bag that would get me held up at security.
I just trimmed my goatee (to about an inch) so as not to look to “terrorist” like. Most people will probably laugh at that and to some degree I try to as well. I’ll be honest though, sometimes it makes me sad, other times it makes me nervous.
I find it sad that I feel the need to conform to a certain dress and look to avoid what I would consider nothing less then racial profiling. It’s okay with me cause I could care less about what I dress like and it doesn’t bother me much to trim my goatee. For many though their look is a big part of who they are, some for religious reasons, other for image, other for culture, the list goes on. I find that sad.
I also get a little nervous when going through security. Granted, nothing has ever happened to me personally; in fact I’ve been stopped less then most people I know, but I still get a little nervous. You remember what happened in London this past Summer? A Brazilian man, an innocent man, was shot dead in the subway. On a personal level, that sort of situation makes me nervous. I wonder if that sort of thing might ever happen to me; I don’t worry about it muchl but at a time like this, it is on my mind.