Perhaps I was too glib in a couple of my earlier comments within this discussion thread. For the record (in case an effort at humor passed as a literal position rather than as irony) I did not really assume the TSA would attempt to ban suitcases after the Namibia scare, though I do assume it is in the nature of any bureaucracy to grow itself larger and entrench itself more deeply at any opportunity to do so.
Some of Glen's comments (of 11/20/2010:16:32:47 in particular) prompt the sense that at least two important distinctions are at risk of becoming collapsed, plus feeling a pang of conscience.
The distinctions I see as potentially being collapsed are:
-not all outrage at the ineffective and inappropriate TSA is false outrage, and
-for some of us progressive green folk--myself included--who ourselves are patriots long reviled by the RRR this authentic outrage with the TSA has been present since day one.
Glen is absolutely correct about the RRR doing an astounding flip-flop from anyone-who-does-not-unquestioningly-support-the-TSA-is-a-traitor! to just the opposite. But there are progressive civil libertarians who opposed this ill-conceived and even more-poorly executed agency from the outset. I am mentioning this just so everyone who currently opposes the TSA does not get lumped together, given the highly significant differences in the histories of our opposition, motivations, and focal points in objection.
My pang of conscience regards the genuine anger I feel toward the individuals who put on the anonymous mask of a TSA uniform. It would be dishonest to say my feelings for these people do not vary from annoyance and distaste to moments of outright hatred depending on the particular interaction I am having or witnessing. Yet is this loathing justified, or simply evidence I need to reflect more deeply and become more mature in managing my own emotions? Because I have flown hundreds of times since 11SEP2001, I have personally experienced and been eye-witness to dozens of instances of utterly inappropriate and outright disgraceful behavior by TSA. The dozens of awful experiences stand out much more in memory and weigh heavier in the balance than the numerically larger portion of more-or-less neutral instances.
When I left Alaska and gratefully came to this land of aloha as my new home in retirement, I swapped the AlaskaSteven handle for AlohaSteven in part because I want to leave the constant bitter partisan battle I was engaged with for so long in Alaska behind me, embracing the aloha spirit here instead. The pang of conscience comes when neighbors with whom I feel a sense of community here put on nameless TSA uniforms and become members of a gang which has demonstrated over and over it can and will bully, ruthlessly, anyone who does not obey every last whim and caprice of those wearing the anonymous uniforms. Suddenly I am no longer feeling a sense of community with those neighbors. Instead, I am seeing them holding a stick over us while my loved ones and I are threatened (figuratively and literally) with being beaten by that stick. A stick, ironically, which we are forced to pay for via taxes and fees and a stick which we know with certainty is absolutely ineffective at preventing genuine intelligently calculated efforts toward terrorism. Get hit with a stick often enough, and after awhile YOU WANT THAT STICK!
The TSA uniform-wearer may be a wonderful person in his or her life before joining the TSA or outside of the TSA, just a regular member of the local community who is simply glad to find a job via which to be able to pay the bills. At first, so were any number of Germans who put on Nazi uniforms, Cambodians who joined the Khmer Rouge, and so on. Not an excessively extreme example- in the beginning any number of groups who later proved to be hideous in many regards started out as clean-cut, earnest, and at least superficially helpful. All German medical doctors and Ph.Ds were automatically made lieutenants in the SS; no choice about that. What those hapless individuals did have some choice about was whether to continue on in that role, following orders and doing what they were told, or to resist in any way possible once they realized the true nature of that with which they were colluding. A member of the community here who joins the TSA thinking they are doing a good thing, but who in that role becomes a person who will do to others that which is being done (all sorts of appalling and disgraceful stuff - I can list and source 'em if folks doubt this and insist but would rather not take the time; it is a long list -do some web searches on the topic), well, I have mixed feelings about them at best.
Yes, the free world (and I'll include the USA within that sphere for the sake of argument) does need rational and effective security oversight of air travel and other shipping. The TSA does not provide rational and effective security oversight. For the sake of everyone I, personally, hope very much for Obama to have the most successful presidency of all time; toward this end I'd suggest completely dismantling the TSA even down to the hated name. The TSA has not only been ineffective but has stupidly and brutishly covered itself in disgrace and shame. Start over with a completely new system which incorporates all the lessons learned from the failed TSA experience combined with the wisdom of practice from partner nations. Allies from Israel to the Netherlands are shaking their heads in sorrow at the waste of US resources and international credibility squandered on the blundering TSA.
Thus my pang of conscience: I want to feel aloha in my heart when I am in Hilo at the airport and encounter the TSA, yet instead the experiences I and others have had since 2001 have taught me to feel very wary of anyone wearing a TSA uniform. That system is broken. Part of how it is broken is how neighbors start to become willing to treat other neighbors when they put on that TSA uniform. My concerns about the backscatter radiation exposure are evidence-based and legitimate, so I will instead opt for the inappropriate gate rape and just try to bite my tongue during the process. Maybe I am mistaken about how all this TSA-uniformed business is dividing the community and about how it is inherently unhealthy, but I predict that sooner or later a gang of TSA uniforms are going to be physically restraining a terrified, screaming, helpless child while s/he is being groped by a stranger and some parent is going to go ballistic and attack the TSA. Right here in Hilo. Roll the dice enough times and they are going to eventually come up snake eyes. Some parent, perhaps, who was raped or molested themself as a helpless child, and who has been doing everything s/he can to keep cool, but just completely loses it when s/he sees and hears a beloved child in genuine terror. How is this going to be a win for anyone, I ask 'yal? The terrified child gets to see mom or dad mobbed and beaten, tazered, arrested, and caught in the teeth of another self-feeding bureaucratic cancer (the so-called criminal justice system), perhaps placed on a no-fly list (more than a minor inconvenience for people who live in Hawaii and Alaska), and yet more seething hatred mounting among members of the community toward those who collude with the TSA. No wonder those who work for the TSA keep it a secret; sooner or later infuriated individuals seeking revenge will probably start hunting for them when they are away from the sheltering cover of their fellow gang members at the airport.
Bullwinkle quite rightly observed and asked
the choice - remains a personal one - grope or nuke. buy a ticket, spin the TSA wheel and a "lucky" few seem to be treated to both. What is the alternative?
The alternative, imho, is:
-Support rational and effective security oversight and an end to this disgraceful farce which is the TSA.
-Contact senators and congressional representatives requesting exactly this and calling for a full congressional investigation of the TSA.
-Avoid flying as much as possible --particularly on 24NOV2010, "opt-out day"-- and inform the airlines of this decision.
-Donate to legal defense funds and organizations fighting for genuinely effective security procedures and against corrupt "sweetheart deal" military-industrial collusion further compromising American liberty.
-Insist on documenting incidents with a TSA report, do not leave the site of the incident until local law enforcement has arrived and also taken a report, demand and obtain a copy of the reports, and share the TSA and law enforcement incident reports with EPIC, the ACLU, and the media.
-Speak out to those we know and in forums such as here on Punaweb.
-To neighbors in East Hawaii who are taking my tax money from the TSA and wearing that uniform which is fast becoming such a hated symbol of everything that has gone wrong in the US since 11SEP2001, I say "quit." Leave that disgraced and dishonorable job, if you possibly can, and if for some compelling reason you genuinely cannot then please do document your experience from the inside and become a whistleblower further exposing the deficiencies in this deeply flawed system. Be part of the solution, not part of the pollution.
-Finally, Elusis makes
an excellent suggestion based on Milgram's infamous "obedience to authority" experiment:
http://elusis.livejournal.com/2141915.html
There are effective alternatives to silent submission and resigned acceptance of a deeply and dangerously flawed situation. If we all use these alternatives, then this situation will quickly improve.
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Baby Hummingbird
http://wimp.com/babyhummingbird
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