This is my passport. Can you see it?

It used to be that this little blue passport was an open sesame . . . it could open doors closed to other people around the world; it could open mouths wide in wonder about what it was like to actually live in the US; it could open eyes to see in ways of freedom and liberty and justice for all. Under the protective cover of this little blue book, a citizen could travel to even remote and dangerous destinations. We were US citizens. And we had behind us and above us the world-wide umbrella of the biggest super-power in the world.

Since 9-11 all that has changed. Now it seems anywhere in the world there are hate-filled forces that keep their eyes out for that little e blue book. As the numbers of slain US civilian contractors and workers in Iraq testifies…