Recently, I went to Orlando, Florida, where a friend was having a baby. The experience of going to this maternity ward was somewhat of a shock to me. It’s been many years since I have been in a maternity ward to see a newborn. What caught me off guard was the security that surrounded this hospital and the realization that our children were being born in a fortress.

This was a women’s hospital, and I have never seen anything like this. When you walk into the place, you have to immediately report to the guards and produce a photo ID. Then, they take your ID and take a picture of it through computer imagery. After that, you must take what could only be called a mugshot. Finally, you are handed a picture ID to be placed on your clothes, above the waist, preferably on the right-hand side.

There are guards everywhere, and they are constantly checking who you are and where you are going. They ask it over and over again, even if they had just seen you five minutes ago. The newborns are lojacked with at least two bracelets and a device around their little ankles to GPS any movement at all. Now, all of that security surely makes expecting mothers feel safe and their babies protected, however, I couldn’t help but feel shame for us as people.

To know what the world has come to, that we birth our children into secure fortress-like facilities, makes me sad. We are so screwed up that we have to worry about crazies stealing our babies. The country is so full of wackos that we have to set up secure compounds for our children to be born in. Everyone is so used to this kind of surveillance and security that no one gives it a second thought. It makes me angry when I think about the freedom and the different experiences it was years ago when we were growing up. To think that going to see someone’s baby would be something I just went through is kind of shameful.

It reminds me of how different the world is now, watching these new babies being born into Alcatraz. It makes me wonder how far we as Americans will go in the future with surveillance, privacy, and personal freedom. Will Artificial Intelligence have a role in the birth of our babies? How much of our way of life will change in the future, just so we can feel safe? Do we even teach the new generations Benjamin Franklin’s quote? “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

How much do we surrender to technology? Why are we so comfortable being on camera everywhere we go? As I drove off from the hospital in our rent-a-car, thinking this through, I missed the cash-only toll lane and went into the Florida prepaid SunPass toll lane by mistake. I had a camera take a picture of my car blowing off a toll booth and not paying. I’m waiting for my ticket in the mail. Welcome to modern America, George Orwell’s vision manifest.

C. Rich

CRich@AmericaSpeaksInk.com

C. Rich

C. Rich is the voice behind America Speaks Ink, home to the America First Movement. As an author, poet, freelance ghostwriter, and blogger, C. Rich brings a “baked-in” perspective shaped by growing up on the streets and beaches of South Florida in the 1970s-1980s and brings a quintessential Generation-X point of view.

Rich’s writing journey began in 2008 with coverage of the Casey Anthony trial and has since evolved into a wide-ranging exploration of politics, culture, and the issues that define our times. Follow C. Rich’s writing odyssey here at America Speaks Ink and on Amazon with a multi-book series on Donald Trump called “Trump Era: The MAGA Files” and many other books and subjects C. Rich is known to cover.

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