Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Enough is enough? Apparently not yet.

By now nothing should shock us when it comes to TSA and the willingness of the American public to allow their rights and dignity to be thrown in the trash like a used paper towel.

In Florida over the weekend, TSA thugs security personnel requested that a 95 year-old woman, confined to a wheelchair, remove her adult diaper. The woman, suffering from leukemia and weighing just a tad over 100 pounds was taken to a glassed-in area and subjected to a pat down by TSA thugs security personnel. Feeling something "suspicious" on the elderly woman's leg, TSA thugs security personnel took her to a private room and notified the woman's daughter that she would have to remove her diaper because it was soiled. 

The TSA released a statement Sunday defending its agents' actions at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport.
"While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," the federal agency said. "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

After taking off her mother's diaper, both the daughter and her mother were both asked to submit to pat downs -- which, of course, they did. But why?  

Jean Weber told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday that the security officers may have been procedurally correct, but she still does not believe they were justified, especially given her mother's frail condition.
"If this is your procedure -- which I do understand -- I also feel that your procedure needs to be changed," she said.
Weber said the two were traveling June 18 from northwest Florida to Michigan, so her mother could move in with relatives before eventually going to an assisted living facility.

Why was it so important to get on that plane that a grown woman would subject her mother to that level of humiliation? Why do people continue to play this game with the TSA? At what point will the American public take a stand and say that enough is enough?

It continues to amaze me that people just accept that this is the way that it is and don't question the reason behind the police state tactics at our nation's airports. It riles folks up to read about the child who was groped patted down by TSA thugs security personnel. It makes people mad when TSA thugs security personnel take away an object from a mentally retarded man. It makes our skin crawl when a 95 year-old woman is humiliated in the name of air travel.

But no one questions the reason for the complete lack of sense and respect our government shows for its citizens at airports.

Does it make you feel safer that you've kissed away your right to be left alone by the state? Does it make you feel safer that you've gladly handed over your dignity to a person wearing a TSA badge that isn't qualified to work for the police department?

We have become a nation of complainers. We like to sit on our couches or behind our desks and complain about the latest humiliation we were "forced" to endure because we didn't have the courage to take a stand and say enough is enough.

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