A month and a half has passed since my encounter with federal airport security agents in Memphis. What follows is a general overview of what has transpired since, where we stand now, and what lies ahead from our perspective at FED UP FLYERS. As I’ve said before, I didn’t set out with some ulterior agenda when I first rejected the new TSA screening procedures. Many of my coworkers and I were appalled last summer when they announced that all travelers – including crew members – were to be subjected to virtual strip searching by means of the new whole body imaging systems that are being deployed in airports across the country and/or physical frisking (a.k.a. “enhanced pat-down” inspections) in the primary security screening process.
The announcement was delivered in the form of an authoritarian decree rather than a lawful Notice of Proposed Rule Making. This means there was no customary comment period during which experts from the aviation, security, and medical professions or other concerned members of the public would have the opportunity to voice their questions, concerns, or objections regarding the proposed policy changes. So by the time we were officially notified, our choices were limited: on the one hand, we could comply and, in the process, abrogate a substantial portion of our basic human rights, civil and physical sovereignty, freedom, self-respect and personal dignity. On the other hand we could withhold our consent and face the unpleasantness of uncertainty as to the consequences of our refusal to comply. Because the first option was far less pleasant than the second – to me, at least – I was without reservations on October 15 when I rejected the TSA’s inappropriate and illegal advances.
But I never expected that my story would draw the kind of attention and response that it has. During the following 24-48 hours I watched in astonishment as it went viral all over the Internet, across the nation, throughout the professional aviation community, and elsewhere in the world. I was aware that some Americans have become increasingly concerned about the state’s tyrannical aggression. It wasn’t clear to me how many there were, however, until the present Administration – through the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security and TSA – made this latest arrogant blunder of despotic presumption against the traveling public. I discovered that by the time they saw my story a lot more U.S. citizens than I ever imagined had already been fed up for some time. And, as people continue to become informed about what our government has been up to in the airports (and elsewhere), the numbers appear to still be steadily climbing. It’s been good to see that – despite a concerted and increasing effort by some to politicize the issue and turn it into a civil war between left and right, conservatives and liberals, dogs and cats, or any other polarizing distraction – overwhelming support continues to pour in from across the socio-political spectrum. Americans of every stripe are fed up. Indeed, people all over the world are fed up.
[Begin digression]
In all sincerity, I want to emphasize that – for me at least – this has nothing to do with there being a Democrat in the White House, or his being black (or not white, or whatever), or questions about his citizenship, or any other partisan or conspiracy theorist nonsense that I frankly just don’t spend much time thinking about. I have just as much criticism for one side as the other (don’t even get me started about the abominable Patriot Act). A commenter elsewhere on this site aptly quoted Thomas Jefferson as saying:
Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.
Folks, I’m really not a political animal at all. I’d just like us to maintain our ability to live however we see fit, free to bicker and opine amongst ourselves the way we always have without the state imposing its oppressive decrees on any of us. That means we must stop handing our power and authority over to either side, thinking they will beat the other into submission and reward our loyalty with advantages independent of the rule of law. It just doesn’t work that way. It never has anywhere. It is we the people whom they will beat into submission as they squabble with each other over who will take the greater share of the spoils generated by our productivity. The rule of law is our reward for rejecting those who seek to impose a rule of might and lord it over us all according to their own arbitrary interests and unpredictable whims.
Well now, I’m glad we got that all cleared up.
[End digression]
In the first couple weeks after my ordeal in Memphis I received thousands of calls, emails, text messages, and letters via post from people wishing me well, thanking me for taking a stand, and encouraging me to stay the course. Many seemed to understand the need to assure me that I was not alone, and for that I’m most grateful. There were hundreds of friendly calls from fellow pilots, flight attendants, and other industry professionals (even TSA agents who said they hate their jobs and agree with me!) But the truth is they were still reporting to work, bowing the knee in subservience to the state as if giving thanks for their daily bread whenever they passed through one of the new checkpoints. It was a long, lonely, and busy two weeks. It was also heartbreaking to hear how humiliated, defeated, and backed into a corner so many of these decent, misguided people felt. Then Ann Poe called me.
[Continue to page 2 to read about Ann, our Fourth Amendment lawsuit, and more...]
Thank you for taking a stand for many of us. I would like to inquire if your suit is still necessary
since tsa has agreed to alow the Pilots and Flt Attendents to bypass the xrays and patdowns?
Seems you have won, hopefully. Best wishes to all flight crews.
No, TSA’s agreement to exempt crew members from their abuse wasn’t a victory – and it was only a very small bit of progress in that it demonstrates that the public outrage is substantial enough to move the people who have overstepped their authority. But their recent announcement was nothing more than a political concession. They’re hoping many others will draw the same conclusions you have and assume that the matter has been resolved. That way they can go on abusing the rest of the American people relatively unopposed (spending millions of stimulus dollars in the process). Don’t buy it for a minute. No law abiding citizen should ever have to bare all or be physically groped by a government agent in order to move about within his or her own borders.
The Fourth Amendment, which is the basis for our lawsuit, wasn’t only written for airline pilots and flight attendants. It was also written for my wife and children, my mom, my neighbors, you, and even citizens of other countries when they visit the U.S. And it’s important to understand that the Constitution isn’t where our rights come from. It clearly says so itself. It says that all of us are endowed with certain unalienable rights – human rights – because we’re… well, human. That’s true whether we have the Constitution or not. All the Constitution does is establish the boundaries within which the government in this land must abide. It’s about us limiting government, telling government what it may and may not do – not about government telling us what to do.
But, the more powerful we allow our government to become, the more attractive government roles become to the kind of people who would establish a totalitarian state (seating themselves in the highest offices, of course). And that’s exactly why so many ego-maniacal, criminal sociopaths tend to congregate in the D.C. area. Over time both they and we begin to believe that they are rightly entitled to tell the rest of us what to do, how to live, to hand over our hard earned money to them so they can take care of us because we cannot possibly take care of ourselves (which becomes the reality because, without the fruit of our own labor, it becomes increasingly difficult to take care of ourselves).
We find ourselves following their orders without even bothering to ask why it is necessary for someone else – people we don’t even know – to tell us what to do. We go to state run schools and grow up believing and being told that this is just the way it is, and it becomes very difficult after a few generations for any of us to imagine it being any other way, or that it ever was any other way.
Eventually, we reach a point where a ward of the state instructs us to stand with our feet apart and our arms out while they produce nude images of our bodies or put their hands on our genitals, and we simply comply. If we even wonder at all why this is necessary, we turn on the TV and consult the media. The media, wishing to report accurate information, has consulted the state itself – tsa.gov, for example. Surely there can be no more authoritative source of information for a diligent journalist than… well, the authorities, who tell us it’s for our own safety that they must touch our balls and look at our naked bodies. The media dutifully report this information back to us – smug in the knowledge that they’ve played some vital part in handing the orders down from on high (and often rewarded for doing so with future interviews and better access to the inner circles of power). We receive the official word and are satisfied. Indeed, it’s for our own good that they must touch our balls and look at our naked bodies. Or maybe we aren’t buying it, but it would be such a hassle and so costly to resist – a total disruption to the way everything functions in society and upon which our very lives and livelihood depend. So we grumble fiercely, and we comply.
Anyone who even thinks of taking real action – even just to speak the truth – is swiftly punished on every front, marginalized, threatened, branded with dehumanizing labels like “domestic extremist” or even “terrorist” (though real terrorism is a legitimate threat, to be sure). Such people are portrayed as being strangely different from everyone else, on the outer fringes of society and, we are told, really not that interesting. Nothing to see here, now move on.
Well, to get back to your question, no – the show is not over. I hope you will continue to pay attention. The constitutional rights and freedom of the American people are still being trampled in airports across the country every day and must be restored not only in the federal courts, but in the court of public opinion and understanding. YOU have the right to fly as a law-abiding citizen without being abused by federal security agents. YOU must not voluntarily allow that right to be taken from you just because you’re told it no longer applies in a “post 9/11 world” (there must be some very giddy men laughing it up in some cave in Afghanistan over that one). And it may cost you something to preserve that right, just as all our rights and liberty itself have always come at a cost because they are always under assault. Evil is a real thing and works most effectively when no one even believes it’s there. Ann and I are pressing ahead with this battle because the evil is still there, very much at work in the hearts and minds of the American people – and now even physically laying its hands on our bodies. You see, in the big picture, this is about much more than airport security, body scanners, and all the wasted resources involved.
Please wake up. Please understand what’s going on here. I’m not just saying that to you, BJ – we’ve all got to stop watching American Idol and trampling each other in the shopping centers this holiday season at least long enough to catch up with the stark reality that our society is being torn apart right under our noses because, while we’re not paying attention, there’s a determined enemy fast at work, exploiting our complacency by keeping us comfortable, greedily feeding on us all the while. You’re not going to get the full perspective from CNN or FOX News or any other major media outlet. Perhaps a good history book would be a wise place to start. There’s nothing new under the sun. Also, please stay tuned to FED UP FLYERS and tell others about us. I’m working hard to get more information on the site so you can at least mull it over and figure out how to make sense of it for yourself (which is exactly what you must do – please don’t believe anything just because you heard it from us, either).
Yes, very nicely put Mr. Roberts — this is the core problem, of course.
The US has become a dependent society — a people who have accepted symbols of authority over reason, experience and truth. The result: illogic and incompetence are now epidemic. From my own observation, I think the condition is worsened by a contemporary, human phenomenon — people seem to lack natural curiosity.
With such prevailing political bias today everywhere and without access to a diversity of good information, the public is crippled, individuals cannot make wise decisions. And even while intellectuals among us are firm in their awareness and loyalties, they are unfortunately swept along by the massive wave of a misguided majority.
And it’s important to understand that the Constitution isn’t where our rights come from. It clearly says so itself. It says that all of us are endowed with certain unalienable rights – human rights – because we’re… well, human. That’s true whether we have the Constitution or not. All the Constitution does is establish the boundaries within which the government in this land must abide. It’s about us limiting government, telling government what it may and may not do – not about government telling us what to do.
Perfectly stated! This point cannot be emphasized often and heavily enough.
Thank you again, Mike, for all that you’re doing!
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Agreed, agreed, agreed all. Thank you that we are not alone. I am usually not a political type but the fierce assault on our liberties has awakened me, along with a lot of people I know. The perverted treatment we are getting at airports has awakened a national wrath, and really, the people who are saying its okay, we’re safer…they may not agree with us, but they will not fiercely defend the perverted route taken by TSA either. We just need to be mad enough to stand up for ourselves. Plus others will follow, because they’ll realize that we have a chance of winning, and there is a better way….
Glad U stood up to them. If everyone would the insanity would have to end. People need some education on this so they will not tolerate it. It irks me how much suffering yourself and others have done.
Most states would allow you to claim unemployment, since the job conditions have changed to physical abuse. It might be helpful to call your local unemployment office. I think many will be changing careers. U did the right thing and I believe U will be taken care of.
For an attorney: There is one in Colorado, who filed suit to get this stopped. I would google “attorney sues ove TSA” That would give you some options if you follow the links. Anywhere they have a copy of the complaint, all his info will be on it.
Best wishes
Jennifer
Thanks for taking a stand. I am Executive Platinum on American and have been subjected to the physical assault (I refuse to go through the cancer machines) 8 out 8 times traveling in the last month at RDU. I have contacted my Congressman, both Senators, the President, Rep Ron Paul and the ACLU as well as formal complaints to TSA which i am sure will put me on a do not fly list as punishment.
Drunk driving kills 10 times more people, every year, than 9/11 did and police are not allowed (at least not yet) to pull a person over for no reason and search the car without probable cause. This is exactly the same thing, I am “guilty while flying’. If the police pulled cars over whever they want, there would be a mass outcry of “guilty while driving’. This must stop!!
Thanks,
Tim
This really all began with the industrialization of our country. One hundred years before that happened, the people who came here were entrepreneurs. Since that time, a huge percentage of Americans live and work in fear every day — in fear of losing their jobs or never finding new ones, and thus in fear of being marginalized. Most adults have never been self-employed for any length of time and have no idea how to be financially independent of a corporation. Most adults are perpetually dependent on some corporation that treats them like children and encourages them to cast aside all original thought in favor of the profit motive and keeping the shitty job that cost them the sense they were born with in the first place. If you don’t believe me, look at who works for the TSA! People so devoid of all common sense and lacking in any other skill or ability, they have to fondle their fellow citizens and their children to put food on the table! How pathetic. And the big corporations are raking in profits, using those profits to install a government that will reward them with corporate welfare, and the cycle is perpetuated. These corporations and their bought-and-paid-for politicians have stolen our most fundamental freedoms, but they started by doing it to their own employees first. That way, they already have an army recruited who will defend their illegal and appalling tactics. We as Americans have a right to not be subjected to unlawful search and seizure, so who the hell does TSA think they are? They’re not even law enforcement — notice in all these cases, they always have to call in the REAL cops to escort the would-be passenger away from the security area? They are nothing more than glorified security guards who have been conferred the mandate to perform these disgusting acts on innocent citizens including children. Anyone who isn’t bothered by all of this really needs to take a look in the mirror and figure out when they handed their freedom, their intellect, their basic understanding of right from wrong, and now even their bodies over to our social institutions of corporations and government. It is a fear-based phenomenon and most are afraid they cannot survive without some corporation telling them what to do all day long, and some government “mall cop” feeling their toddlers’ privates through their diapers. Anyone who isn’t disturbed by what is going on does not deserve the fundamental rights and freedoms our founders secured and passed on to us. My family and I have not flown and will not fly again until this gets resolved. I have driven or taken a train to two funerals thus far and will do whatever it takes to avoid the TSA and the corporate airlines who complicitly participate in their actions. The implications of having elected officials in place who are knowingly allowing our rights to be violated are heavy — and the Declaration of Independence instructs us here. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Wake up people.