By: Jenn Hesse
Freedom lovers agree- the TSA is a horrible program that has done nothing for the
safety of our planes, and has only been successful in saving us from hydration and
making us miss our flights.
Generally speaking, many TSA employees are quite friendly. They do what they've been
hired to do and are genuinely nice when greeted with a smile. But, like police forces,
there are those who ruin their reputation for the entire group. They are there because
the government has granted them the power to do whatever they want to do with youbody,
mind, and property. They don't expect obedience- they demand it. In many cases
it appears as if they are waiting for the excuse to demand it, waiting for that one
person who dares question them.
But it's not just about the people that TSA attracts. It's their record- and in fact their job
at all- that we must question. Let's take a trip back to the 90s. Pre-9-11 travel was
different. Liquids were only limited by what you could carry (and the laws of the lands
while traveling internationally). People were able to knit and crochet on planes, because
the needles and small scissors weren't questioned. Violent attacks were few and far
between. It was still safer to fly than to drive.
One day changed our traveling lives forever. Guess what - the terrorists won. They have
made Americans and America significantly less free, through the means of this power- hungry, now-government-run agency.
One popular TSA meme has made its rounds
several times now, in which Steve Hofstetter questions a part of this practice: “If you
bring too much liquid, the TSA confiscates it and throws it away, in case it’s a bomb… In the garbage can right next to them. With all the other possible bombs. In the area
with the most amount of people. In case it’s a bomb.” What a great place to store
possible bombs, don't you think? Safe. Job well done.
And the rules they can't decide on, from one airport to the next, from one week to the
next. Take your laptop out, leave it in. Shoes off, shoes on. Shoes directly on the band,
use a bin. iPads in, iPads out. Yelled at and belittled whichever you choose- whichever
you do will be the wrong one. They only want a reason to make you feel small. Big
man, so powerful. Oops, I dropped a bin. Security! She's throwing bins at us! Never
mind that if I were to throw a bin at you, they would have hit you, not the ground close
to me. But a digress. My experiences don't matter- they're minor in the volumes of TSA
failures and prejudices we could read. Being a white woman, I don't normally have
many problems. My friends of Middle Eastern decent and I compare notes from time to
time. Those are not random stops.
When you ask TSA if they are successfully stopping terrorism, they will proudly tell you
they are. They find guns and knives and tout the importance of what they do. But
everything they mention would easily be found by a metal detector and standard X-ray
for baggage. The added levels of personal invasion have done nothing in the name of
security. In fact, in 2015, a thorough effectiveness study was performed, and it was
found that TSA had a 95% failure rate. The body scanners, while being a part of the
failure-to-find statists, also lead to an increasing amount of false positives. Something
as simple as sweat can be noted as a positive, leading to pat-downs and detention of
innocent travelers, overheated by the wait of security. People with undiagnosed
medical issues, such as hernias, often face the same fate.
What are we selling our freedom for? Are we going to sell these freedoms in other
areas where many people gather? To get on public transit? Go to the mall? The TSA
does nothing but make a select few "feel safer." Do you feel safer? I don't. I feel angry. I feel violated.
We may not feel that we can change much, but we can tell the government this agency
has failed and must be removed and replaced with private companies who will not
violate their customers to do their jobs. Private companies will be able to be more
innovative and have more concern about the failure to success rates than the
government-run TSA. It is time to elect liberty-first individuals who understand that risk
will exist in every world, but the loss of freedom is not an acceptable price to pay for a
minutely safer life. Freedom matters.