Indecent Proposals

By Cindy Gomez
Editor

I once heard a story about how the Queen of England wanted Aretha Franklin to come sing for her because the Queen believed Aretha to have one of the most prized voices in humankind. Aretha declined the Queen’s invitation. Why, you may ask? Afraid to fly, Aretha refused to get on an airplane.

The idea of not flying ALWAYS seemed ludicrous to me. Forget about refusing a chance to sing for the Queen of England, what about honeymoons, vacations, world exploration, holidays, and business? Flight is essential to so many of life’s most important encounters; it seemed illogical to even try avoiding it.

Yet that is exactly what people all over the country are vowing to do since last month’s changes in airport security. In startlingly large numbers, people are calling for boycotts of all flights or opting to never fly again since mandatory x-ray or pat-down security measures began. There are many people in our society who would never dream of being subjected to a groin or breast rubdown. But now, thanks to increased security, many of those people are being forced through their first of many dehumanizing experiences to come. And boy are they are pissed!

Recently, a 66-year-old Oakport Township resident who had double knee replacement surgery, felt violated after he went through the indignity of a body search and vowed never to fly again.

Thomas Sawyer, a 61 year old bladder cancer survivor who refused the radiation exposure was doused in his own urine after a bumbling TSA agent broke his urostomy bag. A young mom, travelling alone with her special needs child may require long-term psychiatric after the recent “sexual assault” by TSA in which “She [TSA agent] then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia. SHE DID NOT TELL ME that she was going to touch my vagina area or my labia.”

People disgusted by overreaching security policies are having trouble fighting back. Given the necessity of travel, boycotts seem ineffective. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would or could avoiding flying. And you would think that instead of creating more barriers to the free flow of people and goods, we’d have the good sense to figure out a way to make it safer, more expedient and affordable for everyone to use air travel. But you would be wrong.

The gulf between those who are privileged enough to travel by plane—and those who never leave their country, state or even their hometown—is growing. And one of the main reasons this is happening is security. Yes, that’s right. Those “increased security measures” we kept hearing about after 9/11 meant we’d all have to submit to time-consuming lines and questions, increased manpower, tedious baggage checks, and expensive equipment. Now we can add x-rays and rubber gloves to that list.

Remember when you could fly AND clip your nails, carry a full bottle of shampoo on the plane, and get to your destination without ever having taken off your shoes or any of your clothes? Those were the days!

But there is still the choice of having forced intimacy with a same-sex partner (TSA officials won’t say what the details of the pat-down “procedure” are, but do say that a person of the same sex performs it) or getting radiation exposure. The decision seems like an easy one to make for some people. After all, if you’ve ever had any modern medical procedure, you’ve already been exposed to X-ray risks, right? Perhaps not.

It’s been almost a decade since 9/11 and the U.S. is still ratcheting up security everywhere, with no end in sight. Our government is even willing to forego our safety in order to make sure we’re safe. The new X-Ray machines now being used in airports go beyond violating privacy and can potentially expose people to unknown harmful heath effects. In a “Letter of Concern” sent to Obama’s top science advisor, four University of California San Francisco scientists, including internationally known cancer expert Marc Schuman, informed the White House of the potential health risks.

These experts explained that we’re being told that our exposure to these x-rays is similar to that of a chest x-ray or other similar hospital test. That’s “very misleading” because the radiation we’re used to from hospitals is spread over the whole body, thereby minimizing risk. Whereas the radiation from airport x-rays is mostly deposited in a small percentage of the body - -the skin and nearby tissue - - making the exposure very high. The elderly, the sick (especially those with immune system suppression or HIV), children, women (especially of child bearing years and/or pregnant) and men’s testicles (which are subject to sperm mutagenesis) are most at risk.

If you believe that airport security, although invasive and potentially harmful to the health, is a necessary evil, then you might be disappointed to find out that our increased security measures haven’t made us more secure. If anything, we’ve disrupted the lives of millions for the sake of a few (bungled and mostly failed) terrorist attacks. We’ve also managed to insult and violate the rights of countless numbers of people who “look like terrorists” to us. I’m sure that doesn’t improve our security either. 

Israel, a country that sees a minimum of 2-3 daily terrorist attacks, has less invasive airport procedures. Rather than randomly sampling (and inconveniencing) everyone, the Israelis have come up with effective surveillance methods that root out suspicious behavior and activity. The results? Terrorist threats in Israel are stopped. 

Still a tough call to make? Maybe this will help you decide how to deal with your next flight. So far, the radiation vs. pat-down reviews are mixed. Americans, noticing they are losing more and more of their human and civil rights daily, are doing little more than cussing out TSA agents or boycotting airplanes. Oh, and they are also blogging, writing letters to the editor, calling their congressmen, and talking to the press. But rather than acknowledge the backlash, TSA is coming back with strong statements that they don’t plan to change a thing!

Politicians and homeland security are already faced with billions for security and have little to show for it. They continue to demand increased security measures. We already know the cost in time, money, and in fear factor for our society, with no measurable safety improvements. It’s up to you to heed or ignore this increased threat to your liberty.

Act by demanding airport officials drop invasive and potentially harmful procedures and make sure the media hears about it! Wait this one out and you might as well begin desensitizing yourself to body cavity searches.

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