Full Body Scan? No thanks!

OK, when I arrived for my flight to Orlando this morning, I saw that the Full Body Scan (aka "Virtual Strip Search) has now apparently become the standard order of procedure for Richmond International Airport.  They only have ONE backscatter scanner, but everybody is expected to go through it unless they protest.  When I stepped up to the line, there was a lady patiently standing there.  I asked her if she was being made to wait because she had "opted out" of the virtual strip search.  She said, "Yes, I guess I have to wait because I have 'a choice'."  She was a first class frequent traveler and had been waiting 10 minutes for the exercise of her freedoms.  She was a bit frustrated, but was not going to be bullied into relinquishing her freedoms.  She was adamant about that fact.

I had the time to talk to her because I was also opting to exercise my constitutional freedoms from illegal search and siezure.  In fairness to TSA, I'll have to say that the guy who did my patdown was was sensitive to my rights.  When he commented that I'd probably done this many times, I said, "No, I used to be able to be screened without having to opt out of a virtual strip search."   He didn't react negatively to my comment and was quite professional in his conduct.

I told him that I was aware that he was just doing his job.  He said, "Let's just get you through here."  He scanned his gloves in advance to confirm that his gloves didn't create a "false positive" on the explosives test.  I joked that if his gloves failed, I'd have to screen him.  He didn't laugh out loud, but appreciated the humor.  (Wow!  That is a change from most of my previous interactions with TSA!)

I don't know if they've backed off on some of the "enhanced pat-down procedures" but the pat-down was not excessively invasive.  I've seen others go through the enhanced pat-down before and I don't feel that this one was as invasive as some that I've seen.  Maybe TSA is buckling a bit to our demands for our constitutional rights?  :-)  Read: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tsa-scanners-20110202,0,984304.story

I appreciate that TSA has some professional employees.  I appreciate that they seem to have eased up some on the enhanced pat-down.  However, none of this makes up for policies that play "fast-and-loose" with our constitutional rights to begin with.  I still contend that everyone who walked through the strip-search line this morning were denied their Constitutional right to protection from illegal search and seizure without probable cause.  The more we submit quietly to this erosion of our rights, the more the bureaucrats in charge of our "security" will sharpen their knives to whittle away yet more or our rights.

“You can’t trust anybody…”

I just got “nabbed” by America’s finest…the TSA. I forgot a bottle of water in my backpack. This water bottle has made the trip through numerous checkpoints, but always empty. This morning, I forgot to empty it.

Well…my water bottle became the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” for my TSA experience. Because I had a bottle of water, they “randomly” tested my bag for explosives…and it tested positive. Once the alarm was set off, one TSA “expert” patted me down while another did the “alarm positive” paperwork, while another checked through ONE of my bags thoroughly. (I have to ask – why didn’t they check BOTH bags of this suspected terrorist? After all, I WAS guilty of carrying a water bottle…)

I asked what types of things would cause a “false positive”. She said, “Heart medication or sometimes even hand cream.” I joked that I had heard a commentator say, “The LAST person that needs to be told they test positive is a heart patient.” (I though the implication was obvious…that the stress wouldn’t be good for a heart patient.) Her response? “Terrorists take heart medication too.”

Huh?! The BROKEN logic of that response is a good sign to me that she should be relieved of her role in screening passengers -- TODAY. Is it heart medication we are screening for here? I thought it was explosives we were guarding against, not prescription medication. Terrorists can have allergies too. Should we start screening for Claritin as well? (I confess…I had some in my bag. Arrest me now.)

The statement upset me was when she said, “You can’t trust anybody these days!” That statement is blatantly untrue. You can trust me. She stands at the checkpoint every day and sees evidence that the MAJORITY of the people passing through the airport can be trusted. (Except that you can’t trust certain conservative Christian guys to remember that they have a bottle of water in their backpack…)

TSA exists to protect the general traveling public against the VERY unlikely “bad guy” trying to get on the plane. I have traveled a lot, and I have never –to my knowledge – met anyone who turned out to be one of those bad guys. I would venture a guess that my “friend” at TSA this morning has never met one either. We can’t buy into the philosophy that “you can’t trust anybody”. If we do, the terrorist have won!

You’ve GOT to trust people. I am about to step onto a plane and TRUST a pilot I’ve never met, but I don’t plan to interview him or put him through a sobriety test. I left my vehicle in long-term parking in Washington, DC when I began this trip. I am trusting literally hundreds of people to leave it alone. And it works! You can trust MOST people for the basics in life. While I understand that TSA can’t just assume everybody is OK, I refuse buy into the philosophy that “you can’t trust anybody”.

Here is some interesting reading I found while I was writing this post.

Voluntarily "bumped"...

I write this sitting in a hotel in Erlanger, Kentucky. You may or may not know that I am the Board President for Mission Data International. I am on my return trip from a few days of board meetings in Siloam Springs, AR. The travel for this trip has be quite eventful.

When I went to Washington-Dulles Airport to begin this trip, I ran into traffic snags, construction and the lovely folks at TSA have also developed new and improved ways to hinder the flow of people through their checkpoints. I missed making my flight by 2-3 minutes. I didn't get onto the next flight because they changed the aircraft used on that flight...decreasing capacity by about 20 passengers.

This meant that I got diverted to Atlanta to make my connection. While I was waiting for my flight from Atlanta to Arkansas, they were asking for volunteers to be "bumped" for $400 "Delta Bucks". I was wishing I could volunteer, but had to make my meetings. I arrived about 5 or 6 hours later than planned, but we were able to flex and get all of our business taken care of. When I again had the option to volunteer on my flight to Washington, DC tonight, it seemed like a great idea. I get a good night's rest, and a fresh start tomorrow, instead of arriving home at 1 am. The family won't miss me too much because they would have been in bed when I arrived anyway. Win-win.

My next trip will be on Delta's "nickel". I probably won't use the whole credit on a single flight either... I'll take the $400 Delta! Thanks for the nice room too. :-) Think I'll go down to the Jacuzzi for a while now... :-)

Flag Burning in Virginia!!

This post was pre-written and I waited until I received Erika's permission before posting it, out of respect for her journey.

Americans have traditionally held a high degree of respect for the flag. It is not, as my daughter lamented recently, "just a piece of cloth". In her defense, I have to remind you that she has only lived as anything other than a visitor in the US for about 18 months. You've got to remember that she is culturally more Australian than she is American. We moved to Australia when she was 3 years old and left Oz when she was nearly 12 years old. Perhaps to the same degree that Americans are overly patriotic, Australians struggle to have a national identity at times. I think Erika is working through the struggles of trying to bridge BOTH of those mindsets!

Yesterday, we visited a camp owned by the Woodmen of the World Insurance Company, during a "Family Fun Day". Evan is going to go to a week of camp there with a buddy from church, so we wanted to check it out. Woodmen of the World is a fairly conservative, VERY patriotic company, so part of the event was an official retirement ceremony for a flag that had become old and tattered.

For those that may be unfamiliar with the etiquette surrounding the US flag, it is pretty specific. At no point is the flag supposed to touch the ground. There are specific ways that the flag may and may not be displayed. An upside-down flag is a sign of distress and a request for assistance. One way that etiquette is commonly transgressed of late is that a flag is not supposed to be made into an article of clothing. And perhaps more important, a tattered, faded flag is to be retired and should not continue to be displayed. ...and there is a very intricate, specific way for the flag to be retired.

I never knew what a flag retirement ceremony was like. I found it so intriguing that I thought I'd write about it here for your interest and enlightenment. The retirement ceremony we observed was carried out by U.S. Army personnel. The first thing that was done in the retirement ceremony was that the field of stars was removed by cutting it out, intact with scissors. This field was then folded and placed in the hand of one of the soldiers holding the flag. With this done, they proceeded to cut out each of the red and white stripes, folding them in half and draping them over the soldier's arm. When the process was complete, they burned the stripes, in groups of 2 or 3 and then, after a kiss by the soldier who was holding the pieces to the field of stars, it too was burned.

It is meaningful that the field of stars never gets cut into pieces. I think it represents unity of the 50 states of the Union that is the United States of America. Each of the 13 stripes of the flag represents one of the original colonies of the birth process of our union. They chose INDIVIDUALLY to become a part of the Union. (These are my personal commentary, and not the official "dogma" of the Flag Retirement Ceremony.)

On the way home, Erika asked why there was such reverence given to the flag. She felt that maybe they were giving a level of reverence to a "piece of cloth" that should be reserved only for God. I hope we did a good enough job of being sensitive to the journey she is on, and also challenging her to think beyond the symbol and reflect on the importance of the object of the symbolism. I found it very moving to spend the amount of effort that was spent to honor a symbol of our unity and a symbol of the freedoms that were bought with the price of much blood and many lives. If you have a chance to attend a Flag Retirement Ceremony, I highly encourage you to do so.

RANT: TSA and Level Orange

Note: This blog post was originally written several weeks ago while I was on a plane, but the sentiment hasn’t changed much since I wrote it.

If you have ever talked to me about travel, you know that I don't really like the TSA much. Understand me, though - I am very happy to be secure. I do not want a repeat of the events of September 11, 2001! However, the aspect that frustrates me is the willingness our government has to pay whatever expense to set up this vast bureaucracy whether the policies are effective or not.

I am writing this on an Airtran flight from Richmond, VA to Atlanta, GA. At the "sleepy" little airport in Richmond, I showed my photo ID to prove that I was the person who was ticketed to fly on this flight. They I submitted all my articles I was carrying to be inspected and walked through a metal detector. OK. I think we're safe now.

When I got to my gate lounge, I noticed 3 TSA personnel standing around...waiting. "Oh now," I thought, "why are they here?" Well, everyone who was at that gate lounge had just walked through the same procedures I had undergone and were sufficiently screened 30 minutes earlier or they couldn't be there. Two of the agents checked all the IDs of people again as they got on the plane. One just stood and watched. I turned to a fellow traveller and said, "Your tax dollars at work!" :-)

If one security screening is not sufficient, will another make us any more secure? We have air marshals aboard most airline flights these days. Maybe we should have a TSA person on flights to check IDs enroute as well?

We are on Orange Alert in the United States, and have been since August 10, 2006 without any specific threats indicated to justify the heightened level of “alert”. In reality, I think we are not all that alert anyway. Remaining on such high levels of “alert” for extended periods tends to fatigue the system.

Does it occur to anyone else that maybe we have let fear rule the day, and in a small way the terrorist are winning? Again, I am glad that we haven't experienced any further attacks, and some have been thwarted. I just doubt that we have to surrender ALL of our freedoms to live in security. I for one would like to see us go back to at least Alert LEVEL YELLOW unless there is some actual threat that justifies the current heightened level of alert.

Postlogue: Funny reminder when I had dinner in the airport in Atlanta and was given a metal fork and a plastic knife. I feel more secure now since I can’t stab my steak with a metal knife. :-)

Encounter on a plane

I flew to Orlando Sunday evening. Most of my trips, I am able to get a non-stop flight, but in this instance, I had to fly via Atlanta. If you know anything about Atlanta airport, you know it is a nice airport, but still not a place you want to go if you don't have to.

There had been some storms earlier in the day and I counted about 40 airplanes waiting to take off on two of the runways as we landed. When an airport as busy as Atlanta has storm issue, it can have a real "domino effect" and mess up your plans. Sunday was no exception.

When I arrived in Atlanta, I made a neat connection with a family that had been on my incoming flight. We looked at the monitor and found that our flight to Orlando was delayed by 2 1/2 hours. Not good news. We looked into what options might exist, but gave up and went our separate ways to get some dinner.

When I came back from dinner, I went to customer service and learned that I could get a slightly earlier flight, so I booked on it. I got a seat near the front, and ended up between a friendly off-duty flight attendant going home, and another weary traveller bound for Orlando.

I had one chapter left to read in "The Shack" so I pulled it out to finish it. When the "weary traveler" next to me saw it, she said, "Hey! My mom gave me a copy of that book this weekend! What is it like?" From what I had discerned from conversations to that point, I sensed she probably wasn't an active follower of Jesus. I was glad she had been given a copy of the book. I told her it was a book to stimulate your thinking about God and what He is like. "Oh, I think about that often already..."

After some mental wrestling with myself, I pulled out my card at the end of the flight to give it to her and she said, "Oh! I'm glad for that...I was going to ask you for one!" We agreed to talk after she had read the book. I look forward to seeing where our conversations go.

I find that, in air travel, there are those who want to chat, and those who want to be left alone. Have you ever had a meaningful on a plane trip? I'd love to hear about it!

Umm...I thought this was a non-smoking flight!

Well, I had a new experience at the airport last Sunday. An evacuation. That sounds all dramatic and everything, but I guess it was considered that.

All passengers were onboard and the entry door was closed. The captain was making announcements about flight time and such as they were cranking up the A/C. I have flown a LOT of times and I am kind of used to the smell of fuel as the Auxillary Power Unit is first cranked up. I am used to a bit of steam vapor coming in the plane as the temperature begins to cool down. This was not that simple. It was smoke.

It started as a trickle and I figured it would clear up pretty quickly, but it just kept getting worse. Soon the pilot came over the PA system and asked people to calmly leave the plane. "Leave all your belongings and simply calmly exit the plane, please." For the most part, everyone was calm and didn't get too irate as they realized they were now in for a significant delay.

The airline offered a free round trip ticket to anyone who would volunteer to take the same flight the next day. Many of the less patient people jumped on that....then I heard one of them complaining, "What do they expect us to do, spend the night in the airport?!" I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "They don't expect you to do anything except show up for your re-scheduled flight tomorrow! Get a grip dude, they just gave you a free round-trip ticket!"

I actually enjoyed the comaraderie that began to develop among some of the more patient passengers as we stood and talked about our options. The staff handled it really well and no tempers seemed to suffer significantly. (Even when I asked if I could arrange to get a Non-smoking seat on the next flight!) The crew cleared the smoke from the plane, allowed everybody to get their belongings off the plane and then tested the systems to see if maybe we could go after all. No such luck.

We spent 6 hours in the airport and finally the "12:00 noon departure" actually happened around 6 p.m. and we got to Orlando in very good time. The pilot made up as much as he could on the way down and made the 2 hour flight in less than an hour and a half. I only missed one of my scheduled meetings and was able to reschedule that one for another slot the next day, so all in all, I was out 6 hours and gained a $75 credit for my next flight with the airline. ...and I got some reading done in the interim. :-)

When I got back home, Brenda said my parents had seen my flight discussed on the evening news. I guess there wasn't a lot of news in Richmond that day! The "story" is here. In what I consider to be an ironic twist, while there were no injuries, it was a flight attendant that had to be taken off the plane in a stretcher by emergency because of breathing difficulty. I thought she looked a bit on the panic-stricken side when I left the plane.

God's way is.....HUH?!

(I will not begin with lame excuses or apologies for not writing more. We moved in on September 11th, 2008 and are still working to get settled, but enjoying it. )

Well, yesterday was "Decision Day 2008" for the citizens of the USA. Time to elect a new President. Apparently there were more people who turned out to vote this year than at any time prior, and the percentage of registered voters was higher than virtually any time this century. Apparently some people felt a sense of urgency in the air!

My parents went to vote in our little country polling place and had to wait an hour and a half to get to the voting booth. That was another first. In the past...well...you'd have to get into a deep conversation with the staff in order to have a reason to stay so long. It wouldn't be so odd to get in a deep conversation with the staff because they were always friends and/or relationships....remember I said "rural" and I meant "RURAL"! :-) Some friends in Florida said they had to wait over two hours to vote. Apparently Florida, embarassed about the "hanging chads" of a certain prior election, Florida now has ballots that you fill in and put into a scanner to be electronically read. If you can't figure out how to use a punch ballot, surely you won't be able to run a scanner! hehehe That seemed to be the issue causing such a long wait for my friends. People couldn't get the scanner to accept their ballots.

(As for us rednecks in Virginia...well...how much can you mess up a touchscreen? I'll have to admit that while I was there, they had a slight fiasco when somebody walked away without pushing the "enter" button to tally their vote...)

At any rate...I was headed down the road yesterday and next door to a polling place, I saw the sign at the top of this post. "Gods way is americas way!" I am not quite sure what the message means, but I am assuming it had something to do with the author's preferred candidate. ...hmm...which candidate DIDN'T have God on his side? I thought they both tried to drag him into their camp... Hmm....maybe time will tell. It usually does.

Nostalgic for WA already -- the mourning process...

I had my last concert today with A Cappella PRAISE and have started to feel quite nostalgic about our life here. We are mourning the fact that we are going to be leave Western Australia, and it is really coming home to me of late! This morning, at the concert, the Director asked me - on the spot - to introduce a song.

It was "Ride the Morning Winds", and it was fitting that I should introduce the song because of all the upheaval in our lives right now. I cried right through the song, having introduced it based on our situation at present. We have so many things to do before we hand over the keys to our house in late October....so many unknowns, so many goodbyes, so many plans to make....well, it is overwhelming at times. Most times, actually. The song talks about the fact that regardless of WHERE we are or WHAT we are doing, we are not alone, God is there with us. ("I can ride the morning winds and you are there, I can sail the farthest seas and you are there...I can never be lost from you.")

Well, as I said, I was feeling nostalgic, so this evening, I asked the family if they would like to go watch the sunset over the ocean. We rode out to Coogee Beach (the one on the WEST coast, for you Sydney-siders!) and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful, and it is one thing I will DEFINITELY miss! It was neat because Erika -who tends to live in denial at the moment - said, "Can we do this a lot more before we leave?" It was a special time for us, and we look forward to doing it more because we will be HOURS from the coast in Virginia, not minutes! ...and it will be the East Coast too, so we won't get any sunset over the ocean.... I wouldn't say that sunsets over the Blue Ridge mountains aren't spectacular, but we will sure miss the Indian ocean!

An interesting thing happened while we were on the end of the jetty...like the people in the photo. A guy came up from the lower deck to speak to us. He wanted to give us an invitation to his church. I think it is probably the first time we have had that happen in our time in Australia! He was very personable, and didn't shy away at all from the "unique" nature of his church. He talked about the miracles that happened there all the time. The brochure they are handing out is a bit overboard about the supernatural, but I would be interested to know how many people respond positively and end up a part of the church. The guy gave a very positive reflection of the church, I thought. :0)