“How Far Is Too Far”

We live in world of fast everything-fast cars, fast emails, fast jobs. You name it, it’s fast. But are we moving so quickly that we are allowing ourselves to be put to sleep and desensitized? I recently had a connecting flight through Heathrow Airport in London, England and was surprised at what transpired there. As I stood in the security line, I overheard two Canadian girls discussing what they perceived as a gross violation of rights and how they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I paid no mind to the details of their discussion because I was on my twentieth hour of travel thinking about how I had been wearing the same underwear for two days. Then, that gross violation those Canadian girls spoke of earlier, happened to me. As I went through the security line, I was one of the lucky individuals that security personnel randomly chose to pat down. I expected it to be a gentle scan with all major body parts being avoided. I was wrong. When the attendant hit my breast region, she didn’t go around my blessings as I had anticipated, but instead she grabs, squeezes and makes sure that no area of the breast went without some loving. She then proceeds down to my crotch where she strokes me and checks all nooks and crannies down there. After she was done I felt like asking, “Was that good for you?” Is this kind of behavior done in the name of security going too far and have we allowed ourselves to be put to sleep by accepting everything we are told? Have we become desensitized about our sensitive areas? The answer is YES.
After I was felt up by security and finally freed from the hands of investigation, I later observed many other females and males going through the same treatment. Their personal body parts were squeezed, rubbed, patted, gropped you name it. Now of course I was so appalled I immediately began to share my story with others and you know the first question that I got from people, “Was it a female?” I don’t know which disappointed me the most, the fact that I was treated as a teenage boy’s blow up doll by security personnel or the fact that people think it is ok as long as I was rubbed down by a female. I don’t care if you are man, women, animal or Big Bird, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO PHYSICALLY VIOLATE ME FOR ANY REASON, EVER!!! Now some of you might say, well this happened in London, England, it could never happen here or you may even argue “Hey it’s for our own safety”. The reality is there have already been numerous reports of such gross violations in various airports across the United States. We really must be aware and awake. If we are not careful, strip searches and cavity searches could be next on the list. It is a basic freedom to be able to determine who touches your body and how. I love my freedoms, every one of them. I love that I get to choose what career I do, where I want to live, who I want to live with, how I want to live, who I spend time with, where I eat out, where I play sports, you name it. I value every single freedom. Some many things are happening to us under the guise of security these days and what concerns me is that no one questions it. They don’t question anything for that matter. They just say “ok I’ll do whatever you tell me to do” and then off to unawareness they go. If we are not careful, we may all wake up one day and the freedoms that we once enjoyed and took for granted may be robbed out from under us. Now some of you are asking “what can we do?” Well, for starters you can talk back or speak up when things don’t make sense or seem right. You could watch the news with more awareness, asking questions like “why am I being told this, could there be another side to the story, is information being left out of this story, why would someone want me to believe this, or who or what could possibly benefit if I believed this? Now you don’t have to speak up or question from a place of anger but we can do it with solidarity and from a standpoint of really trying to look at things objectively. Everything is not as it seems and it is definitely not as it is being presented to us. Your task is simple, take two seconds and ask the question WHY? Many of you think that our loss of freedom could never happen in the near future or in your life time but have you really thought about fifteen years from now? When you have passed from this Earth and your children and loved ones have been left behind, have you left them the best possible world you can? Will they still enjoy the same basic freedoms that you had or will those freedoms no longer exist? Will they be like slaves being told what to think, what to do, and how to do it with no room for freedom of will? Will freedom of choice be so far removed from their thinking that it is as if they were given a pill to wipe out their memory so that they will never ever remember such freedom and possibility existed? What world will you leave behind?
When I picture the future of our world, I still see unlimited positive possibilities. I still believe in the human and its unlimited potential. Do you? Do you believe that you can make a difference in such a simple way? Well, I know you can and I hope you will. It’s in you. You have more power than you think, USE IT. Our future depends on it.

By: Rhonda Hines

I had an operation once, and I had bloody bandages beneath my shirt where an incision had been made. I asked the airport officer not to touch me where I had that covered wound. It's not because of the pain, but it was not sanitary. He was good enough to be gentle but he still patted down that area of my wound anyway.

I have been frisked in a very personal way on two other occasions in areas besides airports and I really did not appreciate it.


WEB

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Formerly W.E.B. Du Bois (you can still call me "WEB")

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I would rather die in a terrorist attack than surrender the freedom to not be molested before boarding a plane.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin: if we give up liberty to gain security, we deserve neither.

In the US at least, airliners are private property - hence rights aren't involved. Don't want to be groped? Don't get on the plane.

On the other hand, if you want to go to most other countries, you HAVE to fly and if being groped due to a federal mandate is offensive it can and should be stopped.

The airlines are private only in the sense that private companies OWN them. What they DO is heavily regulated and it isn't their idea to practically molest passengers before they board. That has nothing to do with private property.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Most people do agree with those practices, and while not PC, they are entirely reasonable in wartime and consistent with the use islamofascist mass murderers have made of airplanes. And an airline really DOESN'T owe you a ride anywhere.

They never HAVE "owed" me a ride. But once I give them my money they'd damn well better give me one. And since there are several airlines to patronize, they have an obligation to the stockholders (and owners) to make as sure as possible I don't go to a competitor the next time I fly.
This is why I say the groping is the rule by the government and NOT the airlines. And I don't think most people agree with ALL the screening practices. They ENDURE them but some of the unnecessary ones are not universally appreciated.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

would you rather lose the groping and have the possibility of another attack, or keep it and minimise that possibility?

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"Those who would surrender liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security".

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"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Isaac Asimov