Security is Everyone's Business

I was in Union Station yesterday with the family where we passed a large unattended wheelie suitcase situated literally in the middle of the station concourse.

Yep, unattended.
For about 5-8 minutes.

After watching person after person (including red caps) walk past it nonchalantly for about 3 minutes, I decided that it was weird enough that I should let the Amtrak police know. When they approached it, a woman came running over from about 20 feet away to claim it, which precipitated the lecture about leaving bags unattended. So, luckily no drama.

But here's the thing: that bag was in the middle of the concourse. Not off to the side, not even kind of off to the side. The woman left it front and center in the concourse, and hundreds of people just wheeled themselves around it to get on their trains or to get their Big Macs.

In Union Station.
Three blocks from the US Capitol.
In the direct center of Washington DC, USA.

My mom said, "but if someone was going to do something bad, they wouldn't leave the bag right in the middle of the floor; they'd have to hide it somewhere." To which I replied, "Apparently not!" We are apparently so emotionally afraid of terrorism but so practically apathetic to its possibility, that a 42 inch suitcase can sit unattended for 8 minutes in a busy train station within spitting distance of the US Capitol and we just maneuver ourselves around it without noticing something so suspicious and out of the ordinary.

But god forbid the UAE run our ports, huh? That would compromise our security.