I've always been a big fan of the men and women in brown. Well, at least until they showed up hours early for a pick up and I had to take 20 boxes to their @##$#@$ depot myself...but all is forgiven because of my new hero Butch Traylor.



The TIPS program, in fact, reminds me of Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife. Growing up in the 1960's, my sister Marie and I would watch "The Andy Griffith Show" every Saturday night. And every week, if there was even a hint of crime or danger in Mayberry, the ever vigilant Barney was eager to spring into action, lay a dragnet around the city, form a posse and deputize everyone from Otis the town drunk to Floyd the barber. Always on the ready, Barney would pull out his lone bullet, chamber it into his side arm and inevitably fire it into the ground, barely missing his own foot.

Now I see that the same people who last summer thwarted an F.B.I. field office investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attack, want to enlist every goober who installs phone lines or delivers pizza to be the next Ace Ventura terrorist detective.

It bothers me that those charged with defending our freedom would so cavalierly foster such an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. It bothers me to think that my postman might be paying more attention to where my mail is coming from than to where it's supposed to go.