I was on a national media conference call this morning with EPIC, Ralph Nader and others. I got the sense from CNN, especially, that they think this TSA revolt is just a flash in the pan and that no one will actually opt out or boycott the airlines on November 24.
What do you think about that?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m definitely opting out. Moreover, I will avoid flying.
I’m not flying on the 24th, but I’m flying for Xmas. My wife and I have already decided to opt out.
One question I have: I will never allow my infant daughter to go through the scanner. TSA doesn’t allow pat downs of children under 12 (or so I have read). What will they do with her?
The mainstream media says “this won’t happen” or “this won’t be consequential” about grassroots issues that aren’t being championed by them hoping it won’t happen or be consequential. They try to turn media opinion into reality. Ignore them.
The traditional media always swings into line behind every government intrusion. Wait until it happens to THEM–or their little children. I don’t think this is a flash in the pan. I think they wish it were, but man, are they going to be surprised when the airline, hotel, and restaurant sectors sink like a stone into financial oblivion.
The only thing that will matter in the end is what will happen on 11/24. So it is if we make it so. I wonder what is the motivation for reporting this event as a flop, more than a WEEK before the event even occurs?
Now the government is telling airports to opt out of TSA services. Washington Examiner had the story about some taxfeeder named Mica.
After a trip to Washington D. C. last year, I had already decided that I would not fly again until they stop this abuse of the flying public. I have a hip replacement as the result of a bad fall…so I will ALWAYS set off the metal detector as I did that day, resulting in the most invasive, embarrassing, and ridiculous procedure I have ever had to endure…and in full sight of anyone else who wanted to watch. I am a 67 yr. old grandmother and I find this invasion of my privacy disgusting!
The airlines have gotten the last dollar they will receive from me until they wake up and begin to use the same system as the Israelis who run the safest airline in the world by using common-sense profiling! No scans and no groping! The next trip I take will be by Amtrak!
This is one of the biggest liberty issues right now. If people don’t stand up, if this is just a flash in the pan, none of us deserver to be free.
Opt Out Day is simply the opening salvo. It’s a great hook to reach out to like-minded people. It doesn’t have to be a great success in terms of numbers (of course, the more the merrier, but what % of travellers actually know about it). This is just the start of a snowball coming down the mountain.
Of course CNN belittles it, the media is the enemy.
Belated response … I think the TSA is betting that the revolt will fizzle. I think they’re wrong.
I live in NYC. I’m not flying this holiday season. In the event I decide to travel for the holidays, I will rent a car and drive (2-3 days each way) with my pets to visit family and friends in the Heartland. Due to our collective national wisdom, trains are not an option for where I need to visit–Amtrak does not allow pets and can only take me near where I want to go through a circuitous route.
My boycott against flying will continue until these latest forms of TSA theater are abolished. It may mean I never fly again, but so be it. The current TSA procedures constitute a very broad plate of sexual assault by any definition–unwanted naked photographic images, unwanted genital touching, unwanted body touching, etc. So far, rape and sodomy are not included in the TSA repertoire, but if they decide to increase the stakes with body cavity searches, they may be. I suspect that eventually their tactics will provoke some susceptible individuals (rape/molestation survivors, PTSD survivors, etc.) to violence in their efforts to defend themselves against the hands of a TSA pat down, or provoke some TSA employees (rape/molestation survivors) to violence against co-workers.
It’s an illustration of how disconnected we (I mean that in a general sense) are from ourselves, rationality, and common sense. I think the government officials who approved these procedures have lost their collective minds, and I doubt they will back down unless violence breaks out in the security lines, or some suicide terrorist (amused at it all) decides to prove how ineffective the x-rays/pat downs really are and brings down a plane. Heads rolling over these procedures would be a good idea right now.
One wonders who among the flying public is truly exempt from these procedures. Right now wealthy people with access to private planes are exempt, but for a number of reasons this may not last. This is being done on President Obama’s watch, which makes me sad. While it’s not as bad as Abu-Graib, it’s definitely on the scale of human rights abuses. Imagine going through all the trouble to convince your children to not allow family members, authority figures, and strangers to not touch them inappropriately (and to teach them what “inappropriate” means) or take naked pictures of them. Then go with them to the airport for a Thanksgiving trip to Grandma’s. Airports are already places of regimentation and supreme stress, but add strip searches, porno pics, and genital groping to the mix and they’re now places of abomination.
Don’t traumatize yourself and your family this holiday season. It’s not worth it for what sexual assault does to your soul. Stay home, take a train (if you can), take a coach/bus, ride a bike, or carpool, or drive.
I think there will thousands of college students out there who will buy plane tickets to anywhere, just so they can opt-out. I don’t think its going to be a flash in the pan!