flying the unfriendly skies

(This post may be relevant in many other countries, but I’m not familiar with the laws of other countries, so I’m basing it on the United States Constitution.  As I am against abortion, I am already on the domestic terrorist list, so I am beyond caring what the powers that be think about this.)

Why is it, as Americans, we have to give up our Constitutional rights, to fly?  The fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Obviously, because we fly, the government uses that as probable cause to be able to search us and our luggage.  I think this is wrong.  This turns flying into a privileged where you must to give up your rights to use.

In this day and age, flying is not a privilege anymore.  It is a way of life, especially for business.  Many people, me included, have had to fly as part of their job.  Just ask your boss to pay for a rental car and several days so you can drive across the country for a meeting with the client.  Record it on your phone when you do, because I want to watch the reaction.  Then there’s that silly little thing about clients that are overseas.  Can’t drive there!  So, our Constitutional Rights are forfeited.

Now that all passengers are being searched, the flight attendants and pilots are the ones freaking out.  Why is it that they don’t have to go through the same security as the passengers?  I have never seen any crew member ever have to go through a body scanner.  There have been 2 cases lately where someone on the crew has had a breakdown while in the air.  There is all this concern about protecting the crew from the passengers, what about protecting the passengers from the crew?

Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration tell us this is to keep us safe.  Seriously?  I have to remove my shoes to keep other passengers safe?  I have to empty all my pockets and go through a x-ray machine to keep other passengers safe?  I don’t get it.  Do they really think terrorists haven’t figured this out yet?  They are probably laughing their asses off right now just thinking about how the TSA is making fools of us!  As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently put it “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

There you have it folks.  This is what was said by one of our Founding Fathers, someone who helped write the Constitution.  I agree with him.  How many more liberties have we given up in the name of safety?  There are too many to name.  Yet, Homeland Security assures us it’s for our own good.  Are we to believe them?  This is the same government agency that told us the body scanners had been tested and are not harmful to us.

The two organizations Homeland Security said tested, and gave an all safe to the devices, dispute what TSA says.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology stated they did not test the devices.  Johns Hopkins University did test the body scanners and revealed the radiation zone could exceed the General Public Dose Limit.  Until the worker’s union got involved, the TSA had refused to even think about providing dosimeters to the employees that work those machines for 8 hours a day.  If there was no danger, why did they refuse such a simple thing?  So, not only is Homeland Security and its many components like the TSA taking away our rights to keep us safe, they’re also saying “FU” about our health, even the health of those who work for them.  Do you think Janet Napolitano goes through these machines when she flies?

I didn’t have to go through the body scanners on the way to Mexico, but was asked to on our flight home, in Charlotte.  I opted out.  Now here’s where it got ridiculous.  As we were waiting for a female agent to do the search, they didn’t have anyone available.  They had to call someone else, so the female agent at the scanner could do the search.  The only person they had to call?  The guy that was looking at the images!  So, while they were doing my search, they had to shut the scanner down because there was no one to view the images!  Yet, I had to be searched manually!  I couldn’t just go through the metal detector like everyone else was now doing.  Seriously???

All that aside, the TSA agent was wonderful.  She took me to a private room when asked, and even asked Scuba Man if he wanted to come with me.  She was very respectful and nice.  But, I still should not have had to be searched, without probable cause, just to board an airplane.