“Please be gentle.”

The story is too easy to believe. At the Memphis airport, a confused, nervous teenager sets off the metal detector — possibly because she has sequins on her shirt — and is told she needs to come to a “sterile area.” Armed guards show up to escort her. She’s terrified.

This happened a year ago. The girl, then 18, is Hannah Cohen. She was flying — at least that was the idea — back to Chattanooga with her mother, Shirley Cohen, who had just passed through the checkpoint and was waiting for Hannah when, according to a lawsuit the family recently filed, a TSA horror story began.

If the 2016 election cycle of chaos has taught us anything, it’s that anti-establishment candidates are a future choice against the two political parties which have been entrenched for far too long.

Instead of holding their nose when they vote, progressives are turning away from the Democratic party. They are seeking candidates truly in line with their beliefs. Bernie Sanders, of course, has become the face of the left’s history-shattering movement. Unfortunately for conservatives, their predicament is flat-out disturbing.

No surprise is how this new-found focus for a true progressive is surging not just on a national level but locally, too.

Look no further than Olde Town East where a resident and an attorney is running for Ohio House of State Representative 18th District, which encompasses Columbus, Grandview Heights, German Village, Franklinton and the Near East.

There’s a void in Kyle Harrison’s trophy case. The Ohio Machine midfielder has won championships at every level.

Every level but one.

In high school, Harrison led Friends of Baltimore to two Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association championships. In college, he helped Johns Hopkins University win its eighth national title with a 9-8 win over Duke in the 2005 championship.

However, there’s a dust ring reserved for the Steinfield Cup, the trophy awarded for the Major Lacrosse League championship. Harrison has come close, guiding the Denver Outlaws to the 2009 championship game before losing to Toronto Nationals 9-8 in the finals. The past two seasons, the Machine has fallen in the semifinals, losing to Rochester Rattlers 12-8 last year and 15-11 in 2014.

“You can’t look at it that way or you will drive yourself insane,” said Harrison, whose team is 6-4 overall after losing to the Rattlers 16-13 on June. 25. “(But at the same time) the ultimate team goal is to win a championship.

I swapped info to set up this interview regarding Illogic’s new album, “A Man Who Thinks With Own Mind” while Aesop rock was performing.

It was heartwarming to see that some of underground rap’s finest were still friends.

“A Man Who Thinks With His Own Mind” is being released by Illogic after doing two albums with Aesop’s neighborhood friend Blockhead.

Obviously these dudes have been cutting records since Aesop’s “One Brick” off 2001 Labor Days.

Illogic and I linked up a week or so later at Fitzy’s Diner near Schrock Rd and he answered questions over coffee.

The album title stems from one of Illogic’s middle names: Korega, which literally means, “A Man Who Thinks With His Own Mind.”

This album reflects Illogic’s self-reliant cognitive abilities.

It also reflects the fact that this is the first album he has released himself. We tried to figure out how many albums Illogic has released since 1998.

Illogic quipped, “Too Many.” There was a humble answer.

Gov. John Kasich continued to hide from unfriendly questioners June 19 when his "interview" by Channel 4's Colleen Marshall was broadcast.

Marshall, the dean of Columbus news anchors, turned out to be another journalistic "poodle," asking softball questions and failing to hold Kasich accountable for neglecting his duties as governor for a year while he flopped as a presidential candidate and burned through an estimated $1 million-plus of taxpayer money for security and traveling expenses while campaigning out of state.

Sadly, Marshall was more interested in looking good and making Kasich look good than performing as a reporter.

She started the recorded episode of The Spectrum on that Sunday morning by bragging that hers was the first interview in Ohio of Kasich since he dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination. That was false. Two reporters from the Columbus Dispatch and cleveland.com beat her to it.

Marshall opened by telling the audience it would be a "no holds barred interview." Hardly.