Military might?

Apparently, I'm a terrorist. At least that's what a National Guardsman implied when he told me I was performing terrorist activity. \nAllow me to explain. A couple weeks ago some friends and I traveled to Newburgh, Ind., to do a broadcast story for a class. Newburgh was one of the Southern Indiana cities affected by the deadly tornado that struck Nov. 6. \nAs we neared the home of a source, I had the camera pointing out of the car window, and we passed a National Guard checkpoint. I thought nothing of it.\nOn our way back we passed the same checkpoint, but this time a National Guardsman screamed at us to get out of the car. This demanding guardsman's name was Mr. Smith. The wonderful Mr. Smith kindly (insert sarcastic tone here) explained why he stopped us. By "kindly," I mean yelling at us using the F-bomb like a two-dollar whore. From his screams I was able to decipher that filming a military checkpoint is a threat to national security and is terrorist activity. \nI explained to Mr. Smith that I didn't realize what I did was wrong and I apologized, handing over my tape. I thought we were done there, but oh how wrong I was. \n"Have you ever seen a 6-year-old in a body bag?" said Mr. Smith. He caught me off guard and all I could do was respond by shaking my head, and that's when the lecture started. \nHe went off on a tangent, yelling at us for no reason about how he's been to Macedonia and how he's seen things that we could never imagine. Basically his goal was to make us feel like peons compared to his high and mighty military path in life. \nWhile I do have much respect for anyone who chooses to join the military, I don't like it when people let power go to their heads. \nAfter his lecture, Mr. Smith promised me that his supervisors would return my tape the following weekend. I left my name and phone number on the tape. \nThe weekend came and passed, with no response. I later called the Indiana National Guard but all I got was a runaround. \nI was referred to one person who referred me to another person and so on. I never actually talked to anyone from the National Guard who was helpful. The voicemails I left were ignored. \nI was deceived, but it didn't surprise me. As a journalist, I have learned not to trust the military, or the government for that matter. With the Patriot Act behind him, people like Mr. Smith think the free speech of journalists isn't important. \nBut things shouldn't be that way. Mr. Smith saw that I was young and probably a college student, so he thought he would use the opportunity to show off his military muscle. I'm surprised he didn't whip out his rifle and show us how big it is. \nBut I'm not going to let this incident die so easily. I'm going to keep calling and leaving voicemails until I get a response. \nI'm not going to let Mr. Smith's power trip scare me into silence. I'm going to become the National Guard's biggest annoyance until I get my tape back or receive an apology.