"You say that you're the black sheep / I say you're still family"

Okay, so we all know I'm harmless. I'm the one who--in ninth grade--carried a spider out of the geometry classroom and released it outside. I will admit that I look fairly harmless on a daily basis. Coble once told me that she pictures me with a pink bow in my hair. Today is no exception to the rule: I'm wearing a tea-length white-with-large-pink-flowers dress (click here for a basic idea of the shape) with a ribbon around my waist. I was carrying a large-duffel size, Vera Bradley knock-off (Christmas Tree Shop!!!) bag. Riding on the subway this morning in the same car as that "one policeman per subway," I started rummaging through my bag . . . admittedly looking for Tic-Tacs, but no one knew that. NO ONE NOTICED OR EVEN GLANCED MY WAY. This was the exact action that the bomber on the London bus was said to have done during the recent bombings in that city. Yes, I look harmless. Yes, I look like an ad for Banana Republic--but chubby. Yes, it's considered socially inappropriate to question the actions of a conservatively dressed Caucasian woman. But--give me a break: if you're going to detain the African American homeless man I saw as I exited the subway, at least question me. I don't agree with all (or most) of the Big Brother tactics that have been employed as of late, but if they exist, they should exist universally--in my opinion.