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Haveing us railfans as allies with the railroad

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Maybe I just expect more out my goverment, or from the utilities and corporations I do business with. In fact, I will continue to demand excellence from myself and anyone I do business with. Whether I manage it, or get it from others is of course another matter, but irrelevant. If you would have picked up any number of railroad professional trade journals, or observed any number of web news sites, you may have run across the reports - first about the Homeland Security Dept's request, and later what the A.A.R. profile actually said. Also, local newspapers printed the profile when they reported on some of the more notorious incidents that occurred. Why do you suppose that Trains Magazine even asked the question in the first place. I would have no quarrel with any trainmen reporting any trespasser, no matter what they were doing. But the profile included people not on railroad property doing perfectly ordinary, moral, lawful and legal things. Just who else has any authority on neighboring property when no crime is being committed - no one I know, except by due process of law. Railfanning IS NOT against the law! And no official regulation has been published to limit it And how is it that anyone can believe taking pictures or watching anything from public property is a supicious activity. Ever heard of a "Sidewalk Superintendant" - it is actually encouraged by the design of the construction fence. Millions of people the world around watch and take pictures of anything and everything, even pictures of trains. - it is not suspicious or unusual. It is a normal healthy pastime. Just because you personally don't like your picture taken does not make it a national security matter, or even the slightest threat to your employer. It might comfort you to know that unless you are literally hanging out the window, your features are undiscernable anyway. Now most of the enginemen I know are very friendly and welcoming. Those who are my friends indicate they would rather leave the train watchers alone, as long as they stay off railroad property. So be it! Except for the fact the the police and FBI are, for the most part not stupid, and are in fact catching on to this farce, and are trying to respect our civil rights, there would have been legal action by now, as others in this forum have alluded to. Now please, put aside the question of our rights for a moment. --- How is any profile that does not describe a truely suspicious and unusual activity supposed to protect you or your employer from attack? !!! ANSWER - IT WON'T! That is the reason for my drumbeat on this issue. I am asking that you and your employer be better protected than that. It is you trainmen that have been put at far greater risk than any railfan by this phony profile. I suspect that your security was sold out so your employers could take advantage of a temporary national paranioa for their own ends. I truely hope it isn't so. But if it is - it must be rectified. For national security sake. RmC
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