OntheWilderSide

If there is any possible way that you can skip any flight plans for Wednesday, November 24, 2010, please do. For a list of groups planning various levels of boycotts and demonstrations, please see the bottom of this post.

If you allow yourself to get scanned by x-rays, or demeaned by having your genitals touched by the palms of TSA agents, you are saying to our government, “This is okay. This amount of government interference is okay. You can get away with this, and the airports will still make money, and no one will question the government.”

So…Do you really need to fly somewhere on Thanksgiving?

If you are a college student – Could you miss this one break, and stay on campus? Or, find a group of friends to drive with, instead? Could you wait and visit your family on Friday? How much was the plane ticket? Could you afford to lose that money, in a show for freedom, liberty and the greater good?

If you know a college student – Could you get them alternate transportation for Thanksgiving? Could you suggest that at the stage of life that they are at, they might not want to even be in the same room as a radiation machine? There have to be reproductive system consequences to such devices.

To business travelers – Is it imperative that you fly on Wednesday? If you have a meeting, could you do it by conference call? Find an alternate route? Postpone it until next week? If you are going home…would your family understand if you went home on Friday instead, so that you can preserve all their rights and dignity in the future? Have you shown your family the video of the crying 3-year-old, or the shirtless boy?

To everyone: If you don’t have the awareness and self-respect to stand up against this injustice, it is not just about you. It is about your humiliation setting the stage for humiliation, molestation, and safety concerns of: women whose breasts are going to be touched, men whose testicles are going to be touched with another man’s palm, children who are going to be confused into thinking it is okay for strangers to touch their private parts, mother’s who are going to have their children taken out of their site for low-paid government workers to feel up, and/or all of these folks to instead of, or in addition to, experience radiation given by a machine run by nonmedical personnel.

Please, please, please, understand the importance of making some stand against the new TSA measures on Wednesday, November 24, 2010. Because, what they do to you, the will do to me, next. What they do to you, they will do to your wife, your husband, your mother, your daughter, your children. And, if we totally roll over, the government will only get more and more bold in the way it can invade our personal space and dignity under the guise of security. This is serious. Please help, by being aware and taking action. The Thanksgiving Holiday is a great time for a demonstration of the unity and dignity of the American people. Give thanks that you will not be alone in boycotting the TSA new, inefficient, degrading, and dangerous security theater, security crackdown.
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http://fedupflyers.org/women/patti-roberts-on-tsa-security-screening

Message from the wife of an airline pilot upset by TSA screenings:

…Michael and I teach our children that their bodies are special and belong only to them.  We teach them to protect their special parts through modesty.  We teach them to never let anyone see or touch them in an inappropriate way.  Every kind and loving parent knows this drill.  It’s part of the job.  Why then are we subjecting ourselves and our children to such heinous crimes as we travel by plane?…

Yes, crimes!  The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards law-abiding citizens in this country against being unreasonably searched…

We have found that people must be told these things are wrong. Mothers, sisters, friends, and neighbors – please, do not allow government security agents to put their hands on you or your children.  Your body belongs to you. Do not allow government security agents to see beneath your clothing.  Your body belongs to you, not them!…

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Scanner miscellaneous:

Who in politics is against the scanners and these new TSA procedures? Everyone! Everyone who ever had a political thought in their head — who is not a member of Homeland Security or on the payroll of a scanner company — is against these new, intrusive and ineffective measures. See a list of people and groups opposed at my post on Independent Political Report: here.

My husband’s latest  joke: The new TSA pat down procedures give new meaning to the slogan, “1-800-Got-Junk“. (Previously, it was only the phone number for a clean up/dumpster business.)

New Zogby poll: While the rest of the major media is trying to tell us that Americans are okay with this new procedure, Zogby checked, and there is a lot of opposition. Here is the Zogby poll. Here are the basic numbers: “Zogby Interactive: 61% Oppose Full Body Scans and TSA Pat Downs; 48% Will Seek Alternative to Flying.” (Thanks to nader.org for the Zogby tip.)

Kimberly’s thought: I remember awhile ago, the US government was afraid of “dirty bombs” that gave off radiation. Now that the government will have their own radiation machines shooting out radiation throughout the day, every day, to screen passengers, won’t it be more difficult to detect where there is a problem, a dangerous level of radiation, and/or a dirty bomb being smuggled through an airport. (And, why are we doing to people what we feared the dirty bombs would do?)

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Here are the three groups planning actions on Wednesday, November 24, 2010. Though, you can also invent your own choices and statements if you have to pass through this horrible, demeaning, system:

Opt Out Day
One of the first groups calling for a boycott. They have mostly suggested that instead of the choice of going through the naked, full body scanner, you opt for the aggressive pat down method.

We Won’t Fly
We Won’t Fly has a more comprehensive approach to the actions that travelers should take to register their objection to the new procedures. We Won’t Fly says:

The Plan is Simple
1. If you absolutely, positively must fly, opt out of the scanners. Do it to protect your health and privacy.
2. If you can avoid flying, don’t fly. Hit the airlines in the pocketbook until the scanners and gropers are gone. Make the airlines work for us.
3. Raise holy hell. Register your disapproval of the scanners and gropers to your airline, your hotel and all government officials who claim to work for you. Educate your community.

Fed Up Fliers
Fed Up Fliers has a link to National Opt-Out Day. Though, Fed Up Fliers ads this editor’s note:

FED UP FLYERS’ position is to refuse and reject any unprovoked, unreasonable search and seizure. This includes all strip searching (virtual or otherwise), as well as unwanted, unwarranted physical contact by government security agents without probable cause…

Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, children, News, politics, progressive politics, public health, rants, safety, US Politics Tagged: | children and security, college break, families who fly, Full body scanner, Jokes, naked scanner, Opt Out Day, public safety, radiation, Security, security theater, security theatre, Thanksgiving break, Thanksgiving holiday, transportation, TSA, TSA and children, tsa joke, zogby poll