Our Airport System: A Little Slice of Hell

[ixion]

"Two-by-two with hands of blue"
- River Tam, from Firefly, describing the goons of the Alliance.

The security at our airports is distinctly un-American. It is Anti-American, and serves only to harass the populace, and there has been no change whatsoever since Obama took office. None. Zip. Zlich. Nada. The TSA goons are still there, randomly confiscating whatever they feel like. Harassing whomever they feel like, and generally acting like thugs. I recalled the quote above as I passed through one of these checkpoints.

You still have to remove your shoes.

I had a bottle of cologne with less than an ounce of liquid in it. It passed through on my initial flight, and was confiscated on my way home, because the agent felt the bottle was "too big".

I had to pass through security again because of a terminal change. I was frisked.

While inside the system -- which is akin to being in an internment camp -- I was reminded constantly of the 'threat level' being 'orange'.

I find all these behaviors distinctly contrary to the idea of 'Freedom' and 'Liberty'. They are not quasi-fascist, but rather the epitome of fascism.

I used to enjoy flying, and I didn't mind the airports as much. They were a bit annoying, but you could deal with it.

Then came George W. Bush and the Neocons, and now our airport system resembles a concentration camp.

If Obama is serious about 'change' (which I doubt, frankly) here is one spot that is sorely in need of a rollback. I never had issues with putting my luggage through a scanner. You dropped it on the track, it went through, and you went on about your business of being a free citizen.

Now, however, it is a little slice of hell.

Breaking down your luggage, with a crowd pushing you from behind and agents pulling your forward -- hopping along pulling off your shoes, breaking open your laptop -- it's chaotic and uncivilized, in this author's opinion. It is distinctly anti-freedom. It is tyranny incarnate. It is the state harassing the taxpayers, because it can.

Most importantly, it is an indoctrination into acceptance of the Police State. Mark my words: If left unchecked, this environment will populate like a weed and will one day saturate our society, and soon you'll be removing your shoes before going into Best Buy. Fascism spreads like cancer. It is metastasizing as I write this, and will one day overrun our society if left unchecked.

Certainly, I understand the need for a certain amount of security. Bars have bouncers. So do concerts. There's a distinct need there. This security, however, should never ever be at the expense of our civil rights, should never violate our inalienable freedoms. If a society is to remain a free society, this is Rule Number One.

We ignore this (or rationalize it) at our own peril. I am a free citizen in an allegedly free country. By our own rhetoric, we invented the idea of a free country. So let's go ahead and put our money where our mouth is and act like a free country once again.

Thanks for listening.

:rant: