By Jennifer Nagorka, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – We were wearing dark business suits as we walked down the busy Berlin avenue in the late afternoon. I carried a small purse, about the size of three videotapes bound together, but still big enough to hold a pistol or a knife. My husband had a notebook tucked in a suitcoat pocket. Our friend Andy carried a digital camera. We were heading to a reception at which German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the country's highest elected leader, would be the keynote speaker.
Maybe we didn't look much like typical terrorists, but I was still surprised - almost stunned - when we simply nodded at the staff at the front door, and walked right in. No metal detectors. No search of my purse. No inspection of Andy's camera. No passport checks. We had provided our birthdates weeks before the event, but that was the only obvious security precaution.
The 200 or so guests took their seats. Chancellor Schroeder spoke. I tried to spot his security detail. In the U.S., the president always has a sizeable security entourage.
I finally saw three youngish men in suits, with those little earpieces and dangly cords that the Secret Service agents wear, standing around the edges of the room. That was the only detectable security.
Chancellor Schroeder finished his speech, and the crowd dispersed to the buffet lines. Andy wanted to have his photo taken with the VIPs. First, we snapped his photo with the American ambassador to Germany. Then we spotted the Chancellor and began working through the crowd toward him.
Chancellor Schroeder was standing at a tall cocktail table, drinking a glass of wine and talking to whoever happened to come over. Andy sidled in beside the Chancellor, waiting to introduce himself. I stood a few feet away, ready to take the photo. Again I looked around for security. The three guys with earphones were standing at a nearby table, eating but alert.
The Chancellor's vulnerability was agonizing. I could have been anybody. Maybe there was more security than I realized, but it felt like anything could have happened.
At the same time, the lack of oppressive security was refreshing. Americans don't experience that accessibility with their leaders. The need to maintain security - and to control media coverage - prevents it.
The security trend began long before September 11, but it's obviously accelerated since. Two years ago, to see the American ambassador in Berlin, you had to walk past razor wire in front of the embassy, show your passport, and pass through a metal detector. Now the street in front of the embassy is completely blocked by a maze of barricades. All traffic - even foot traffic - is challenged by German police posted at the ends of the block.
It is a sorrowful fact: just when U.S. leaders need to be more in touch with their own citizenry, and our representatives overseas need to be more in touch with average people in those countries, our leaders must retreat behind increasingly elaborate security.
It will be harder and harder to win support for our values - and our causes - when the distance between our leadership and the rest of the world keeps growing.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer in Dallas.