By Ken Schram, political commentary
It seems I perplex people.
A lot of the e-mail I’ve gotten recently contains something along the lines of “Just when I thought I had you figured out…”
Or, “How can no make no sense day after day and then suddenly come up with an opinion that is so right on?”
One of my recent commentaries on KOMO 4 News is the perfect illustration as to why some people are thrown into such a state of confusion in their efforts to pigeonhole me.
I’d gotten an e-mail from a Fort Lewis soldier describing how he had been humiliated at Sea-Tac airport when going thought security.
He and another soldier were escorting the body of a combat colleague back to Virginia for burial.
Arriving at the airport, they were met by Port of Seattle police who escorted them to the tarmac where an honor guard comprised of Sea-Tac fire and rescue, EMTs and other military personnel was on hand to pay homage as the soldier’s casket was placed on the plane.
The soldiers’ problems began when a uniformed police officer then escorted them to the boarding area in the main terminal.
It was there that a TSA screener asked the police officer and the soldiers for their ID.
The screener then directed the soldiers through the metal detectors.
I’m sure their combat medals and ribbons were part of the reason that the alarms sounded.
And what did the screener do?
In front of everyone else in the security line, he had the soldiers put down the American flag that had been draped over their colleague’s coffin, and strip down to their T-shirts, pants and socks.
The soldier wrote to tell me how humiliated he and the other soldier felt.
My angry commentary about how I thought it was disgraceful that those men were treated that way prompted the aforementioned e-mails.
Being rightly pegged as an anti-war liberal seems to come with a certain scripted pattern of behavior that I wasn’t living up to.
That’s OK, because sometimes conservatives leave me surprised by reacting in a way that I think is out of character for them.
I suppose in a way that makes us even.
Anyway, the morning after that KOMO 4 News commentary, I got a phone call from a member of our state’s congressional delegation.
He was equally outraged and pledged to find out why it happened so he could make sure that nothing like it would happen again.
I guess Democrat Norm Dicks didn’t read the partisan script he was supposed to be following, either.
At any rate, with Congressman Dicks’ involvement, TSA officials in Washington, D.C., say they will improve training and protocols that should have prevented the ugly treatment those soldiers had to endure.
As for all those folks — the ones I assume are conservatives — who are perplexed that this liberal can indeed support the troops while being against the war, take heart.
As one e-mailer put it, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Ken Schram is a KOMO-TV and radio commentator whose radio feature with John Carlson, “The Commentators,” airs weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on AM 570 KVI. Schram can be reached at kenschram@komo4news.com.
