Five heroes (or villans) in the Resistance against overreaching TSA practices — and my candidate for an honorary mention
If it seems that I ardently dislike the Transportation Security Administration and its policies, it’s because I do. Sheltered by the Patriot Act, this post-9/11 agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security — arguably the most overreaching branch of government since J. Edgar Hoover ruled the FBI. In its short life — a little more than nine-and-a-half years, Homeland Security in general had shown that it knows few bounds when it comes to intrusiveness. Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe nailed it regarding public indignation of the Murdoch empire’s snooping compared with compliance to whatever Homeland Security does in the name of “protecting” us:
But, as Dave Barry is wont to write, I digress. Christopher Elliott, a steady watchdog on behalf of the traveling public, today wrote: “Every few months, someone seems to capture the traveling public’s attention with an action that exposes the absurdity and indignity of being frisked at the airport. Many of us would call them heroes for their actions. Others would say they’re villains, because they demoralize the TSA and give comfort to the ‘enemy.’”
Chris Elliott has a new post with a poll on his site asking readers to vote for which of five high-profile situations in which travelers resisted the TSA’s excessive and inflexible policies. Although she wasn’t on the post, I respectfully suggest that Chris bestow some kind of honorary mention on Jean Weber. She is the daughter of a 95-year-old wheelchair-bound woman with terminal leukemia who was forced to remove her Depends adult diaper at a TSA checkpoint at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last month and went public — very public — with the indignity her mother endured. The story received wide coverage, but the local newspaper’s report and the TSA’s lame excuse was as detailed a summary as any soon after the unfortunate incident.
I voted in the Chris Elliott’s poll, and you should too.
