Sample Anti-Body-Scanner Letters to Congress, Airlines
Nov 13, 2010, 6:21 pm
#61
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nashville, TN - BNA
Programs: Hilton Gold, WN RR
Posts: 1,818
From another thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ng-17-nov.html
List of members in OP of thread linked at top. You may want to check it before contacting your state's folks to see if one of them is on this committee.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ng-17-nov.html
The Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security will hold a Transportation Security Administration Oversight Hearing next Wednesday.
Please forward this information as widely as possible.
Meeting info:
Jena Longo - Democratic Deputy Communications Director, (202) 224-8374
Nov 17 2010 10:00 AM
Russell Senate Office Building - 253
Contact the communications director to find out more information about the meeting.
The committee chair is Sen Byron L. Dorgon (D-ND) phone (202) 224-2551. The ranking member is Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) phone (202) 224-6121.
Regardless of your home state, call these senators to ask whether recent TSA abuses are on the agenda for the oversight hearing.
Here is a list of committee members, their homepage and phone number. If one of these people is your Senator, please also phone them, either at the number below or look online to find their nearest local office - you can even visit in person. A constituent who knows a senator's committee assignments and addresses issues for the agenda for a scheduled hearing gives him/herself an educated and powerful voice.
Please forward this information as widely as possible.
Meeting info:
Jena Longo - Democratic Deputy Communications Director, (202) 224-8374
Nov 17 2010 10:00 AM
Russell Senate Office Building - 253
Contact the communications director to find out more information about the meeting.
The committee chair is Sen Byron L. Dorgon (D-ND) phone (202) 224-2551. The ranking member is Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) phone (202) 224-6121.
Regardless of your home state, call these senators to ask whether recent TSA abuses are on the agenda for the oversight hearing.
Here is a list of committee members, their homepage and phone number. If one of these people is your Senator, please also phone them, either at the number below or look online to find their nearest local office - you can even visit in person. A constituent who knows a senator's committee assignments and addresses issues for the agenda for a scheduled hearing gives him/herself an educated and powerful voice.
Nov 14, 2010, 1:36 pm
#63
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nashville, TN - BNA
Programs: Hilton Gold, WN RR
Posts: 1,818
another update from today...NJ state Senator taking action on the scanners:
http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine...1/scanner.html
http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine...1/scanner.html
No one asked the public, however. But state Sen. Mike Doherty has heard enough complaints that he’s called a news conference for tomorrow to seek a suspension of the scanning program.
"We have open borders and we have no idea who’s coming in and out of our country," said Doherty, who is a Republican from Warren County. "Yet when American citizens try to travel, the TSA is actually groping people’s genitals, buttocks and breasts, including children."
Doherty said legislators from both parties, as well as a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union, will register their objections to the program tomorrow.
"We have open borders and we have no idea who’s coming in and out of our country," said Doherty, who is a Republican from Warren County. "Yet when American citizens try to travel, the TSA is actually groping people’s genitals, buttocks and breasts, including children."
Doherty said legislators from both parties, as well as a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union, will register their objections to the program tomorrow.
Nov 14, 2010, 4:20 pm
#64
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: North of DFW
Programs: AA PLT, HH Gold, TSA Disparager Gold, going for Platnium
Posts: 1,535
Those that are writing letters to congress and want to put some very hard statics comparing everyday risks to that of terrorism, feel free to use the following that i have included in a letter to my CC.
The numbers of traffic fatalies comes from NHTSA - http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx.
each and every month in the United states alone there are more people Killed or injured on the Highways, and the economic damage from those accidents (property losses, legal/medical bills, lost productivity, wages, etc) exceeds the death toll and economic damage of the events of 9/11, and that is each and every month since September 11,2001 and well before
Nov 14, 2010, 7:28 pm
#65
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
Faxed this letter to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, who's on the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security. Paper letter was carefully footnoted and referenced links to FT threads and elsewhere:
Dear Senator Cantwell:
I am a constituent writing to you in your capacity as a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security. You have an oversight hearing coming up on 17 November at which I urge you to address the issue of assaultive, undisciplined and unjustified airport security activities by the Transportation Security Administration.
Many TSA checkpoints now force travelers to choose between being viewed virtually nude in WBI scanners while absorbing ionized radiation with worrisome medical effects; undergoing “enhanced patdowns” that often amount to government-sanctioned sexual assault; or cancelling their travel. There is very little evidence that these new TSA practices make air travel much safer – and much evidence that TSA merely seeks to subjugate innocent citizens in stark contravention of the Fourth Amendment.
Please take note of:
• Reported concessions by checkpoint TSOs that the new “enhanced patdowns” serve no security function, but are designed to humiliate passengers and erode their resistance to WBI scanning.
• Repeated instances of TSOs marooning WBI “opt-outs” at checkpoints for 30 minutes or more, using the threat of missed flights as additional coercion to undergo WBI scanning.
• Widespread reports of TSOs consistently selecting attractive young women for WBI virtual-nudity scans, speaking phrases into headsets such as “Heads up, got a cutie for you!”, apparently ranking prurient interest over fighting terrorism.
• Frequent reports of male TSOs performing aggressive “enhanced patdowns” on female passengers, including palm-forward palpation of breasts and genitals.
• Reports of TSOs conducting sexually intimate searches of minors including small children.
• TSOs routinely screaming at or threatening innocent passengers, or inventing fake “federal regulations” to justify frightening or nonsensical behavior; a San Diego man who this weekend opted not to fly rather than be scanned or submit to a sexually invasive patdown was threatened by TSA with a $10,000 civil suit unless he returned to the security checkpoint for additional abuse.
• Women wearing thin-cut skirts (typical flight attendant uniforms) forced to disrobe in order to afford TSOs access to their vulvas and the insides of their thighs as part of an “enhanced patdown.”
• 97 percent of 21,000 respondents to an online Reuters poll saying new TSA procedures will make them seek alternate travel plans.
• A grassroots-driven “National Opt-Out Day” planned for Wednesday, 24 November which will challenge TSA’s invasive, irresponsible search policies on the day before Thanksgiving with wholesale civil disobedience, hopefully causing mass chaos with publicity to match.
In light of documented TSA abuses, DHS Secretary Napolitano’s weak and defensive USA TODAY op-ed, posted online Sunday, is laughable. “AIT machines are safe, efficient and protect passenger privacy”? False. “Patdowns are… conducted by same-gender officers”? False. TSA cannot or will not professionalize its front-line forces to act in accordance with pronouncements from the top. While TSA checkpoint practices are dismissed as empty theater by security experts and observant passengers alike – and the agency is regarded by overseas counterparts as a laughingstock – most elected representatives have remained silent, presumably to avoid looking “soft on terrorism.” But ignoring these latest heights of TSA operational arrogance makes you soft on the Constitution.
I urge you, Senator Cantwell, to investigate and document TSA abuses and hold this agency accountable. No innocent traveler should be forced to either display him/herself nude to strangers or have their most private body parts probed by government employees. (Please seek out the horrific accounts of invasive TSO “patdowns” of people who are rape or sexual abuse survivors. ) There is virtually no anti-terrorism rationale for this. TSA has gone to war against the American people, apparently simply to force adoption of questionably effective WBI technology sold by Rapiscan Systems and promoted by that firm’s lobbyist, the ex-DHS secretary Michael Chertoff. If only TSA were as concerned with civil rights and public health as with rewarding these parties. It is ironic that an agency charged with fighting terror has generated so much needless terror among American citizens.
Thanks to TSA air travel is no longer merely irritating, but agonizing and humiliating, to be avoided unless strictly necessary. I hope this worries a senator whose constituents work for Boeing, Alaska Air Group, and many other firms dependent on a healthy commercial aviation sector.
I am minimizing air travel and opting out of WBI scans on medical and moral grounds until leaders like you bring this unguided missile of an agency to heel. Please find the courage to advocate for the millions of innocents pointlessly abused by TSA, a most malignant and ineffectual example of unaccountable police-state government which is wreaking incalculable political and economic damage with very little to show for it.
Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. I appreciate your service.
BearX220
[phone]
[email]
No point in writing to my other US Senator, Patty Murray -- she has no relevant committee assignments and she's as dumb as a sack of rocks. But I'll tweak and send to my House rep also.
Dear Senator Cantwell:
I am a constituent writing to you in your capacity as a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security. You have an oversight hearing coming up on 17 November at which I urge you to address the issue of assaultive, undisciplined and unjustified airport security activities by the Transportation Security Administration.
Many TSA checkpoints now force travelers to choose between being viewed virtually nude in WBI scanners while absorbing ionized radiation with worrisome medical effects; undergoing “enhanced patdowns” that often amount to government-sanctioned sexual assault; or cancelling their travel. There is very little evidence that these new TSA practices make air travel much safer – and much evidence that TSA merely seeks to subjugate innocent citizens in stark contravention of the Fourth Amendment.
Please take note of:
• Reported concessions by checkpoint TSOs that the new “enhanced patdowns” serve no security function, but are designed to humiliate passengers and erode their resistance to WBI scanning.
• Repeated instances of TSOs marooning WBI “opt-outs” at checkpoints for 30 minutes or more, using the threat of missed flights as additional coercion to undergo WBI scanning.
• Widespread reports of TSOs consistently selecting attractive young women for WBI virtual-nudity scans, speaking phrases into headsets such as “Heads up, got a cutie for you!”, apparently ranking prurient interest over fighting terrorism.
• Frequent reports of male TSOs performing aggressive “enhanced patdowns” on female passengers, including palm-forward palpation of breasts and genitals.
• Reports of TSOs conducting sexually intimate searches of minors including small children.
• TSOs routinely screaming at or threatening innocent passengers, or inventing fake “federal regulations” to justify frightening or nonsensical behavior; a San Diego man who this weekend opted not to fly rather than be scanned or submit to a sexually invasive patdown was threatened by TSA with a $10,000 civil suit unless he returned to the security checkpoint for additional abuse.
• Women wearing thin-cut skirts (typical flight attendant uniforms) forced to disrobe in order to afford TSOs access to their vulvas and the insides of their thighs as part of an “enhanced patdown.”
• 97 percent of 21,000 respondents to an online Reuters poll saying new TSA procedures will make them seek alternate travel plans.
• A grassroots-driven “National Opt-Out Day” planned for Wednesday, 24 November which will challenge TSA’s invasive, irresponsible search policies on the day before Thanksgiving with wholesale civil disobedience, hopefully causing mass chaos with publicity to match.
In light of documented TSA abuses, DHS Secretary Napolitano’s weak and defensive USA TODAY op-ed, posted online Sunday, is laughable. “AIT machines are safe, efficient and protect passenger privacy”? False. “Patdowns are… conducted by same-gender officers”? False. TSA cannot or will not professionalize its front-line forces to act in accordance with pronouncements from the top. While TSA checkpoint practices are dismissed as empty theater by security experts and observant passengers alike – and the agency is regarded by overseas counterparts as a laughingstock – most elected representatives have remained silent, presumably to avoid looking “soft on terrorism.” But ignoring these latest heights of TSA operational arrogance makes you soft on the Constitution.
I urge you, Senator Cantwell, to investigate and document TSA abuses and hold this agency accountable. No innocent traveler should be forced to either display him/herself nude to strangers or have their most private body parts probed by government employees. (Please seek out the horrific accounts of invasive TSO “patdowns” of people who are rape or sexual abuse survivors. ) There is virtually no anti-terrorism rationale for this. TSA has gone to war against the American people, apparently simply to force adoption of questionably effective WBI technology sold by Rapiscan Systems and promoted by that firm’s lobbyist, the ex-DHS secretary Michael Chertoff. If only TSA were as concerned with civil rights and public health as with rewarding these parties. It is ironic that an agency charged with fighting terror has generated so much needless terror among American citizens.
Thanks to TSA air travel is no longer merely irritating, but agonizing and humiliating, to be avoided unless strictly necessary. I hope this worries a senator whose constituents work for Boeing, Alaska Air Group, and many other firms dependent on a healthy commercial aviation sector.
I am minimizing air travel and opting out of WBI scans on medical and moral grounds until leaders like you bring this unguided missile of an agency to heel. Please find the courage to advocate for the millions of innocents pointlessly abused by TSA, a most malignant and ineffectual example of unaccountable police-state government which is wreaking incalculable political and economic damage with very little to show for it.
Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. I appreciate your service.
BearX220
[phone]
[email]
No point in writing to my other US Senator, Patty Murray -- she has no relevant committee assignments and she's as dumb as a sack of rocks. But I'll tweak and send to my House rep also.
Nov 14, 2010, 9:50 pm
#67
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: NW Gold, '06. Good times.
Posts: 7,363
Below is a letter I just wrote to my Republican Congressman, in terms that he would appreciate.
BearX220, I liked your letter so much that I borrowed liberally - heh - from it to craft missives to my two Republican Senators.
Folks, this $hit has got to stop.
Dear Congressman X:
I am writing in the hope that you will work with the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives to rein in some of the most egregious abuses of power subjected on our great country by the Democrats over the past four years. I am speaking, of course, of the new whole-body scanning devices that big government liberals are using to peek under the clothes of our wives and children at airport checkpoints throughout the United States.
I will be traveling to Washington, DC, for business in a few days and was horrified to hear that such scanners are already in use there. I have even heard stories of young women being "encouraged" to select x-ray scanning instead of a pat-down by a same-sex TSA officer, no doubt so that the young men viewing the nude images will enjoy greater job satisfaction at taxpayer expense.
This has got to stop. It an un-American and appalling violation of civil liberties by a government more concerned with its own twisted agenda than in preserving the rights of the American people. The Founding Fathers themselves would be furious to learn that their sacrifice has enabled an abuse of government power akin to the one that led to the Revolution in the first place.
I do not know where you stand on this issue but I assume that you, like any real conservative, are completely opposed to it. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to end this appalling abuse of government power immediately. If we don't stop them here, their power over our daily lives will only grow.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
hoyateach
I am writing in the hope that you will work with the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives to rein in some of the most egregious abuses of power subjected on our great country by the Democrats over the past four years. I am speaking, of course, of the new whole-body scanning devices that big government liberals are using to peek under the clothes of our wives and children at airport checkpoints throughout the United States.
I will be traveling to Washington, DC, for business in a few days and was horrified to hear that such scanners are already in use there. I have even heard stories of young women being "encouraged" to select x-ray scanning instead of a pat-down by a same-sex TSA officer, no doubt so that the young men viewing the nude images will enjoy greater job satisfaction at taxpayer expense.
This has got to stop. It an un-American and appalling violation of civil liberties by a government more concerned with its own twisted agenda than in preserving the rights of the American people. The Founding Fathers themselves would be furious to learn that their sacrifice has enabled an abuse of government power akin to the one that led to the Revolution in the first place.
I do not know where you stand on this issue but I assume that you, like any real conservative, are completely opposed to it. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to end this appalling abuse of government power immediately. If we don't stop them here, their power over our daily lives will only grow.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
hoyateach
Folks, this $hit has got to stop.
Nov 14, 2010, 10:39 pm
#69
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: North of DFW
Programs: AA PLT, HH Gold, TSA Disparager Gold, going for Platnium
Posts: 1,535
Ill second that, I already sent in letters to the critters but i will be using BearX220 format with a few extras added onto for counter points to what ever responses i get. I have the distinct feeling that the critters that represent my area are firmly in the Sheeple , anything for security category, for which i will be extremely shocked if they respond other wise.
Nov 14, 2010, 10:55 pm
#70
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
I'm excited to see the comments thread under Nappy's op-ed on the USA TODAY website running virtually 100 percent negative, against TSA.
Nov 15, 2010, 12:25 am
#71
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: People's Republic of California
Posts: 2
Here's mine
Dear Honorable Senator Boxer,
I wanted to email you to discuss with you my fears about my upcoming flight to visit my husband in Virginia while he is on TDY for the Army. While in Virginia we hope to tour the White House and the Capitol Building, as well as see the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian and do all of the great touristy things one can do while in DC. I'm really looking forward to the trip, as is my six-year-old son, [name].
What I am not looking forward to, however, is being subject to the dehumanizing and intrusive searches now being performed by TSA in the interests of 'National Security.' I am not looking forward to making my son allow someone who is not his mother, his father, or his doctor see him naked or touch him in his private and personal places as if he was under arrest. I take umbrage to the fact that I and other passengers are treated like common criminals, except without the benefit of legal counsel. I feel that in order to fly, I must subject myself to baseless and unjustified "digital" strip searching or invasive groping of my private areas, or face severe penalties.
When did it become okay to treat people as if they are guilty before they are proven innocent? And since when did our government subsidize sexual assault in the name of security? Who allowed this, Senator Boxer?
If it were only me, I'd grit my teeth and soldier through it. But my baby, my precious precious child, must also line up and be violated not only of his person but of his rights as a citizen of this country, while I stand helplessly by, impotent and able only to witness it.
The anticipation of having to go through this fills me with dread, like a sinking weight in my stomach. Can you imagine having to watch as a person in uniform does this to your child, Ms. Boxer? Can you imagine having to submit to being touched in your most private places, being forced to comply in order to board an airplane? In its most simple terms, boiled down to the most concise definition, it's sexual assault. And Americans are powerless against it as there's no other feasible alternative to cross-country or international air travel.
I urge you to do whatever is necessary to stop this unjust and unconstitutional practice. Daily it seems our civil liberties and rights to security in our person are being stripped from us as quickly and seamlessly as our clothes in a backscatter imaging machine.
Yours sincerely and with kindest regards,
Mary_RN
I wanted to email you to discuss with you my fears about my upcoming flight to visit my husband in Virginia while he is on TDY for the Army. While in Virginia we hope to tour the White House and the Capitol Building, as well as see the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian and do all of the great touristy things one can do while in DC. I'm really looking forward to the trip, as is my six-year-old son, [name].
What I am not looking forward to, however, is being subject to the dehumanizing and intrusive searches now being performed by TSA in the interests of 'National Security.' I am not looking forward to making my son allow someone who is not his mother, his father, or his doctor see him naked or touch him in his private and personal places as if he was under arrest. I take umbrage to the fact that I and other passengers are treated like common criminals, except without the benefit of legal counsel. I feel that in order to fly, I must subject myself to baseless and unjustified "digital" strip searching or invasive groping of my private areas, or face severe penalties.
When did it become okay to treat people as if they are guilty before they are proven innocent? And since when did our government subsidize sexual assault in the name of security? Who allowed this, Senator Boxer?
If it were only me, I'd grit my teeth and soldier through it. But my baby, my precious precious child, must also line up and be violated not only of his person but of his rights as a citizen of this country, while I stand helplessly by, impotent and able only to witness it.
The anticipation of having to go through this fills me with dread, like a sinking weight in my stomach. Can you imagine having to watch as a person in uniform does this to your child, Ms. Boxer? Can you imagine having to submit to being touched in your most private places, being forced to comply in order to board an airplane? In its most simple terms, boiled down to the most concise definition, it's sexual assault. And Americans are powerless against it as there's no other feasible alternative to cross-country or international air travel.
I urge you to do whatever is necessary to stop this unjust and unconstitutional practice. Daily it seems our civil liberties and rights to security in our person are being stripped from us as quickly and seamlessly as our clothes in a backscatter imaging machine.
Yours sincerely and with kindest regards,
Mary_RN
Nov 15, 2010, 12:44 am
#72
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: MSP
Programs: Fallen Plats, ex-WN CP, DYKWIW; still a Hilton Diamond & Club Cholula™ R.I.P. Super Plats
Posts: 25,415
Feel free, guys, but mix up and customize the language a little bit so the recipients don't think it's just a cut-and-paste form-letter campaign.
I'm excited to see the comments thread under Nappy's op-ed on the USA TODAY website running virtually 100 percent negative, against TSA.
I'm excited to see the comments thread under Nappy's op-ed on the USA TODAY website running virtually 100 percent negative, against TSA.
Nov 15, 2010, 11:34 am
#74
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nashville, TN - BNA
Programs: Hilton Gold, WN RR
Posts: 1,818
Joining TXagogo in applause! You people are awesome!!
Here's my own most recent offering. I plan to contact my other frequent hotel and rental car chains shortly, along with whatever Florida tourism department I can find (I'm a scuba diver).
Here's my own most recent offering. I plan to contact my other frequent hotel and rental car chains shortly, along with whatever Florida tourism department I can find (I'm a scuba diver).
HHonors Customer Care
P.O. Box 9003
Addison, TX 75001-9003
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a Diamond tier Hilton HHonors member, I think it prudent to share with you some information regarding my future travel plans. I have been appalled and horrified by recent changes in airport screening procedures by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), under the Department of Homeland Security. These new processes require the average traveler either to submit to X-ray machines which can see through clothing, or an intrusive police-style frisking which includes manual contact with his or her genitals. This is unacceptable, particularly given that both "naked" X-ray machines and frisk-type searches are being used on children. Additionally, these procedures dramatically increase the amount of time a passenger must spend in the screening area and consequently add to the chances of missing a scheduled departure.
Attached please find a copy of correspondence I recently shared with my elected representatives. I have previously been a frequent leisure traveler - I've visited all 50 U.S. states and five of the seven continents. However, until such time as the Transportation Safety Administration's processes are reviewed by Congress and the courts, I personally intend to drastically reduce the frequency and distance of airline trips I purchase for myself and my family for leisure travel. Unfortunately, this will also likely affect my hotel stays, car rentals, and the amount of money I spend at typical vacation destination areas like ski and beach resorts.
I feel the bottom line of America’s hospitality companies may at some point be affected by the hesitance of customers to purchase airline travel, given the increased costs via government intervention in what should be the private affairs of common people. I would urge Hilton's representatives to contact Congress to put an end to these invasive search procedures on the part of the TSA immediately.
Very truly yours,
[my contact info]
[my HH number]
P.O. Box 9003
Addison, TX 75001-9003
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a Diamond tier Hilton HHonors member, I think it prudent to share with you some information regarding my future travel plans. I have been appalled and horrified by recent changes in airport screening procedures by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), under the Department of Homeland Security. These new processes require the average traveler either to submit to X-ray machines which can see through clothing, or an intrusive police-style frisking which includes manual contact with his or her genitals. This is unacceptable, particularly given that both "naked" X-ray machines and frisk-type searches are being used on children. Additionally, these procedures dramatically increase the amount of time a passenger must spend in the screening area and consequently add to the chances of missing a scheduled departure.
Attached please find a copy of correspondence I recently shared with my elected representatives. I have previously been a frequent leisure traveler - I've visited all 50 U.S. states and five of the seven continents. However, until such time as the Transportation Safety Administration's processes are reviewed by Congress and the courts, I personally intend to drastically reduce the frequency and distance of airline trips I purchase for myself and my family for leisure travel. Unfortunately, this will also likely affect my hotel stays, car rentals, and the amount of money I spend at typical vacation destination areas like ski and beach resorts.
I feel the bottom line of America’s hospitality companies may at some point be affected by the hesitance of customers to purchase airline travel, given the increased costs via government intervention in what should be the private affairs of common people. I would urge Hilton's representatives to contact Congress to put an end to these invasive search procedures on the part of the TSA immediately.
Very truly yours,
[my contact info]
[my HH number]
Last edited by divemistressofthedark; Nov 15, 2010 at 11:42 am
Nov 15, 2010, 3:21 pm
#75
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 8
Another letter to Boxer, Feinstein, TSA
Of course, I modified each one slightly for the audience. . .
Dear
I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of horrified Americans who have finally had enough of TSA trampling our civil liberties. As a woman who is private and protective of her own body, I am DEEPLY offended by either option presented to pass through airport security. The thought of either having someone view my naked body or aggressively pat down private parts of my body makes me physically ill. I liken the enhanced pat down to a government-sanctioned sexual assault. Ever since hearing of the insanity of the new procedures, I have barely been able to think of anything else. This assault on my body under the color of authority by an overreaching agency is beyond the pale. That it is being performed on the elderly, disabled, and children is even more outrageous.
No law-abiding American wants another terror attack to occur. The question is, is there not a more reasonable method of ensuring safety? Is there nothing that we won’t be asked to do in the name of security? While this is the last straw for me and many others, each further step will push more and more Americans over the edge.
The rush to implement such invasive and privacy trampling devices also leaves much of the traveling public with serious questions about the safety of the devices. Personally, however, whether the devices are “safe” or not does not lessen my horror at the intrusion on my person.
TSA is putting the final nail in the coffin of the airline industry—finishing off what the terrorists started. I was not afraid to fly post 9/11, now I am. I DO NOT WANT SOMEONE TOUCHING ME IN INTIMATE AREAS WITHOUT REASONABLE SUSPICION THAT I POSE A THREAT. I WILL NOT LET SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE OF ME THAT REVEALS MY NAKED FORM.
I have been a frequent traveler in the past, but will do all that is within my power to avoid the leering, groping skies. On a final note, even with these “enhanced procedures” TSA still cannot ensure total safety. Terrorists have proven themselves willing to put explosives in body cavities. ARE CAVITY SEARCHES NEXT FOR ALL TRAVELERS???
Respectfully, but angrily,
Dear
I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of horrified Americans who have finally had enough of TSA trampling our civil liberties. As a woman who is private and protective of her own body, I am DEEPLY offended by either option presented to pass through airport security. The thought of either having someone view my naked body or aggressively pat down private parts of my body makes me physically ill. I liken the enhanced pat down to a government-sanctioned sexual assault. Ever since hearing of the insanity of the new procedures, I have barely been able to think of anything else. This assault on my body under the color of authority by an overreaching agency is beyond the pale. That it is being performed on the elderly, disabled, and children is even more outrageous.
No law-abiding American wants another terror attack to occur. The question is, is there not a more reasonable method of ensuring safety? Is there nothing that we won’t be asked to do in the name of security? While this is the last straw for me and many others, each further step will push more and more Americans over the edge.
The rush to implement such invasive and privacy trampling devices also leaves much of the traveling public with serious questions about the safety of the devices. Personally, however, whether the devices are “safe” or not does not lessen my horror at the intrusion on my person.
TSA is putting the final nail in the coffin of the airline industry—finishing off what the terrorists started. I was not afraid to fly post 9/11, now I am. I DO NOT WANT SOMEONE TOUCHING ME IN INTIMATE AREAS WITHOUT REASONABLE SUSPICION THAT I POSE A THREAT. I WILL NOT LET SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE OF ME THAT REVEALS MY NAKED FORM.
I have been a frequent traveler in the past, but will do all that is within my power to avoid the leering, groping skies. On a final note, even with these “enhanced procedures” TSA still cannot ensure total safety. Terrorists have proven themselves willing to put explosives in body cavities. ARE CAVITY SEARCHES NEXT FOR ALL TRAVELERS???
Respectfully, but angrily,