"The Dumbest Thing"

These are the profounds words of one Charles McKinley, describing his feelings about shipping himself in a cargo box from New York to his hometown, Dallas, Texas on September 4, 2003.
Click here.

McKinley did indeed make it to his parents home but he was of course arrested when the startled delivery man realized he had been carrying human cargo. My favorite line of this story comes from his father, who asked, "Man, what are you doing in this crate?"

I was immediately reminded of Henry "Box" Brown. Henry Brown mailed himself from slavery in Virginia to a free state. Of course, Mr. Brown's odyssey was born of necessity, but what would make someone ship himself in the age of airlines, trains and greyhound buses?

It was fitting that this story made the news around the time of the 9/11 anniversary. I was pleased that Osama hadn't thought of this before. I was reminded that we have been living on luck since 9/11 two years ago. We have been lucky that homesick nitwits ship themselves and terrorists haven't shipped God knows what.

The understatement of the day came from our inept Homeland Security Department. “It certainly shows that we have more work to do on cargo security,” said Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security Department’s undersecretary for transportation security.

Duh!