Will the Real People Who Have Had a TSA Pat Down Please Stand Up?
I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to opt out of the body scan and request a pat down. It just didn’t happen. When I traveled to Nassau 10 days ago, neither was an option. Odd because when I traveled to New Orleans a week before that from the same airport, the body scan machine was there and I went through it. I really wanted to experience the pat down so that I could see what all the fuss was about and make my own judgment call. Too many people are telling others stories and that worries me. I wanted to experience it for myself. Tell my own story. I don’t like the hysteria building. The disturbing homophobia, sexualization, and exaggerations that I’m hearing. I wanted to see for myself.
Speaking totally from the perspective of never having had a TSA pat down, I feel that it will not be a big issue for me. I consider it to be part of the process of increasing security for fliers. As has been often discussed on my blog, I have fear issues with flying though I rarely think of that fear as fear of terrorism. The other day when I was sitting in the big tube that is an airplane, surrounded intimately by 200 strangers, I felt whatever could be done to keep me safe in such a fragile space would be a good idea. Yet, I had read lots of stories of people who do have issues with TSA and the new measures. Horrible stories. One where a woman with a breast prosthesis triggered the additional pat down. She told media outlets that she was humiliated by having to remove the prosthesis for the pat down. Another story of a cancer survivor whose aurostomy bag containing urine was spilled during the pat down and urine wound up on his clothes. These are disturbing. But, are these cases incidences of wrong doing by TSA or incidences of unfortunate situational cases that were rightfully uncomfortable for the traveler, but hold no overt reason to cause the security measure to be discontinued?
I do realize that a larger question posed by many is whether these new regulations will actually deter what we fear- terrorist attacks on our planes. We may never know the answer to this question. As a society, I think we tend to be reactive instead of proactive. You could drive up and park in front of federal buildings until Timothy McVeigh drove a u-haul truck up to the Oklahoma Fed and blew the front of it away. With each threat of in-flight terrorism, the restrictions for flight grow tighter. Soon we won’t even remember the days when we could walk into an airport and wait with a loved one. Now we drop them at the curb, and move quickly back to our cars to be hustled away by directing airport agents. Perhaps some of the TSA measures we see today represent the more proactive side of Homeland Security. I like to remind myself that flying is a choice. One that I still hold the freedom to take or leave. No one, and no government can make me fly. I can drive, ride a train, or take a bus. If you ask me, I think we should be more restrictive of our railways as well. It is in the sky however, that the problems have found their home.
All the hollering over big government is amazing to me as we give up many personal freedoms to privacy daily within the private industry. Ever try walking out of a Wal-Mart without a person stopping you to go over your receipt? Ever take an item back to Target without a receipt and be asked for the card that you used to make that purchase? They’ll swipe it and in an instant everything you’ve purchased at any Target will appear on an employees screen. Yes. Everything. Know that every text you send and think is private or deleted is sitting somewhere waiting to be retrieved if need be. Every purchase you make online. My health insurance company knows my body in more depth than I do. My auto insurance company reminds me of the driving records of people who live with me, even though a different company insures them and I wonder, “how do they know they live here?”
I suppose what I ‘m getting at in my introspective mood of the day, is that it’s a tightrope we walk between personal security and personal freedom. I really don’t have a hard line for myself as to what I will and will not accept because it’s fluid and situational. If the pat downs stories begin to cross that line for me, I can show my protest by refusing to fly. I want to be safe just like everyone else, but I wonder if 6 months from now, this TSA controversy will be over. Are we being pushed to panic by the need to have a story? I wonder what the media will be focusing on next? I am very much aware of the power of the press in highlighting and inciting hysteria. My original post about the TSA has become one of my more popular posts. Hundreds of people have stopped by every day since it was posted. People are clearly concerned, curious, and confused about what this means to air travel. I wish I could have given you my experience. Until I am able to write about it from an actual perspective, I would love to hear from you. If you’ve actually experienced the body scan and/or the pat down let us know your take on it in the comment space below. Too invasive? Concerns? A violation of privacy in your view? Let us know!
[...] ***Update: Follow up post here [...]
I actually had an “enhanced pat-down” by a TSA agent at Dulles Airport back in July after the underwire in my bra was ‘dinged’ in the metal detector. At the time of the pat-down, I didn’t realize it was the “enhanced version”. It was just last month after I read about what’s involved in the “enhanced” screening that I realized I’d already “been there and done that” with a TSA agent.
The only difference I noticed was that it’s not truly a “pat-down”, because the TSA agent used a continuous rubbing motion with her hand, not a patting motion. She actually told me that she would be using the palm of her hands to conduct the security check. I said, “Okay.” She proceeded with the security check. Because I’m very sensitive to touch and quite ticklish, some of her rubbing movements down my back and down the back of my arms actually caused both of us to laugh out loud.
The things she did/said that caused me to go “Hmmmm…” >>> using the side of her hand to stroke down the front of my shirt between my breasts; her asking me to lift my shirt so that she could see underneath to verify that, yes, I was wearing an underwire bra; and her asking me to pull the front of my jeans away from my abdomen so that she could look down inside the front of my jeans to see if I had anything down there other than “standard issue female parts” and Victoria’s Secret.
I was so focused on getting out of there and going to my gate to catch my flight that I didn’t think anything of her requests or rubbing/touching. I didn’t feel “violated” or “assaulted” when I left the security area. My main concern was whether or not my first class upgrade request would clear! (I was on my way to San Diego.)
My “enhanced pat-down” was courtesy of the metal detector “dinging me”, not an opt-out on the bodyscanner. I’ve yet to have an opportunity to opt-out on the bodyscanner, and I’ve traveled constantly this year between February and November. Odds are I will have a closer encounter with a bodyscanner in 2011, and yes, I will opt-out, not because of the ‘peep show’, but because of my concerns about the frequent radiation exposure since I will be traveling quite a bit next year beginning in January. I’ll give you an update if I should have any interesting TSA encounters worth sharing.