The neighbors of Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve Board, in her gated community of Hillandale in Maryland, were reported recently to be up in arms over the federal security detail assigned to protect her. They complained about the security vehicles' size (7000 pounds), noisiness (idling for "approximately 22 minutes daily") and messiness (one apparently spills an unidentified "fluid" when it roars out of her driveway). They complained about the security personnel's personal appearance ("doughnut bellies" and "overweight" and "pizza-eating"), uniforms ("wearing the most ridiculous blue uniforms with the most ridiculous blue caps"), and being armed. Armed security personnel, fer Pete's sake! What's next?
But was that, like so many items in the media in general and on the Web specifically, the whole story, or even the most significant portion of it? Or is there a more upsetting reason the gated-community-izens want the security detail out? After all, I doubt the crews that come to manicure their lawns and tend their flowerbeds are dressed in suits and ties and drive Lexuses.
Perhaps this can shed some light on the situation: One resident lauded the security detail for FBI Director Bob Mueller for "wait[ing] for him outside the gate." Where, when you think of it, it wouldn't remind everyone inside that said gate might not be secure enough for high government officials. Or (shudder!) maybe even they, themselves.
Could the neighbors, rather than simply being bothered by the picayune annoyances people who live in communities of any type eventually notice about each other, really be reacting to the realization that the walls around their homes might not be high enough, that the gates might not be strong enough, that if push came to shove they don't have a sufficient defense force against the real world outside, which those 7000 pound vehicles and ridiculously clothed police officers with their probably-loaded weapons remind them of daily?
Could that be the real problem?