Hi everyone - and thanks so much for being such a welcoming place. I felt better having just told my story. To have it met with such empathy is refreshing. I posted this story, in a shorter version, on another blog, and got ripped to shreds and told we were "sniveling whiners", and various combinations of "flying is a privilege, not a right; if you don't like it don't fly; they're just doing their job; quitcher .....in". Etc. etc.
I just got off the phone with my mother, who is in my daughter's car on the way home from the airport. She flew to Burbank from Phoenix. Apparently they don't have the porno-scanners in Phoenix - but she had to have the full pat-down since, of course, she set off the metal detector. She says they were very pleasant and fast, and it wasn't nearly as traumatic as she was expecting. The woman did touch the sides and undersides of her breasts, but only with the back of her hand, gently. Mom says it "only hurt a little bit". Which makes my blood boil! My mother was so terrified, she was determined to be as compliant as possible just to get through it. Hell, she probably would have allowed them to use a speculum on her, if it would have gotten her on that plane!
She's relieved, but I'm livid. I don't care if the agent used the back of her hand - the bottom line is, she touched a 73 yr old cancer survivor's breast, right where she just had cancer surgery - just so she could get on a plane to go see her family. WHO would think that's okay???
Thanks to those of you who've suggested we lodge complaints. My mother refuses. She just wants to forget about it. She just went through cancer treatment - she wants to focus on other things. We don't know how much time we have left with her, and she doesn't want to spend a moment of it fighting. I get it.
But I applaud those of you who are standing up for your (our) rights. I tend to be a bit of an activist myself, and I intend to find ways to express my opinion about this nonsense...AFTER the holidays.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone - and let's all be safe out there.