I'm a terrorist! Well, not really, but the government thinks that I may be. That's the only reason I can come up with for why they have me on a "terrorist watch list."

I suspected something wasn't right soon after 9/11 when the airlines started singling me out for special searches every time I flew. I've now been searched, patted down and had my shoes examined virtually every single time that I have flown.

On a couple of these occasions, I have received the personal attention of not just one, but two Transportation Security Aministration agents. The last time I flew, I complained to an airline counter agent, and she checked her computer screen and told me that I was on the "Terrorist Watch List" - although not the "No Fly" list - and I could expect to be singled out because of this status.

Why does the government think that I might be a terrorist? I don't know. I've called the TSA and asked, but their representatives wouldn't tell me. I've speculated on the subject and can't imagine what I've done that would have caused them to wonder about me: Should I not have been so gleeful when Ashcroft got beat by a dead guy? Should I have not voiced opposition to Bush's carefully orchestrated build-up to the invasion of Iraq? (Heck, I gave him kudos for playing the press and the American people so well.)

So I don't know why, but I do know that if you Google me, I'm not that hard to find. I'm a long way from the most prominent R. B. Mitchell that pops up, but I'm there - buried in a sea of citings of a Civil War cavalry general (Union side), some doctors, a whole lot of football running backs (RB) named Mitchell and a Penn State biology professor. I'm R.B. Mitchell, the real estate and mortgage guy.

I realize that just because somebody is a licensed professional, owns his own company and has two kids in college, it doesn't mean that he's not a terrorist. You'd think it would be a pretty good indication, though. You'd also think the government would be able to figure this out without some poor TSA worker having to examine my stinky shoes.

But apparently this isn't the case, and I wonder about all those other R. B. Mitchells out there. If the long-dead general were to hop a flight, would they make him take his boots off?

As anybody who has had a police cruiser slip in behind him in traffic knows, being under the eye of Big Brother isn't the most comfortable feeling in the world. I mean, if I'm going 88 mph in a 55 mph zone, that would be one thing, but I haven't done anything wrong. So I shouldn't have to be afraid of my government. If they think I might have done something wrong or that I'm going to do something wrong, then cool. Check me out. But when I come up clean, and it's obvious that I'm not a threat, then leave me alone.

Now, having been in the Navy - I forgot to mention that the government and I used to be pretty tight - I know how "well" our government can run very large programs. At the rate people seem to be being added to the watch list, and with no real way to get them off the list, how long will it take before we're all on the list? Is that the purpose here?

I wonder how much time and money is being wasted on me and others in my situation. Seems to me that if there's a true terrorist cell somewhere out there, the government's efforts would be better applied looking for it. The Bill of Rights has been under assault for quite some time by the government's so-called "War on Drugs." Now we're under attack by the "War on Terrorism." I'm afraid that this new war is going to be about as effective as the old one and that we're all going to pay the price in lost freedoms.

R.B. (Bob) Mitchell is founder and president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. of St. Louis.

© 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch L.L.C.

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