Wil Wheaton is best known for playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but lately he’s also become something of an Internet/social media darling. Here’s how he starts out his blog entry on a recent experience with the TSA:
Yesterday, I was touched — in my opinion, inappropriately — by a TSA agent at LAX.
I’m not going to talk about it in detail until I can speak with an attorney, but I’ve spent much of the last 24 hours replaying it over and over in my mind, and though some of the initial outrage has faded, I still feel sick and angry when I think about it.
What I want to say today is this: I believe that the choice we are currently given by the American government when we need to fly is morally wrong, unconstitutional, and does nothing to enhance passenger safety.
Later in the piece he adds this:
When I left the security screening yesterday, I didn’t feel safe. I felt violated, humiliated, assaulted, and angry. I felt like I never wanted to fly again. I was so furious and upset, my hands shook for quite some time after the ordeal was over. I felt sick to my stomach for hours.
Many people have had similar experiences since the TSA began their fiendish new security procedures last year leading many to choose not to fly anymore. Others like Wil will continue to fly but do what little they can to affect change.
It’s actually been amazing to see how this issue has brought people of disparate political persuasions together in common outrage. Many libertarians, conservatives, and liberals have all come out strongly against this policy. I hope Wil will write about this again in the future, but I truly hope he never has a similar experience again.
Heard about the new “security” procedures the Transportation Security Administration has been rolling out recently? It basically goes something like this: Airports all around the country are seeing the installation of a new type of scanner that gives TSA screeners an x-ray-like look under your clothes, presumably to check to see if you’re carrying anything they disapprove of. In addition to revealing what’s in your pockets though, the machine also makes your private parts visible to the screener. These machines have been dubbed “porno scanners” by their critics, and for good reason.
Don’t want to subject yourself the scanner? Or your wife or teenage daughter? You and your family may then be subjected to a very personal feel-up by a TSA thug instead.
I think most people would be terribly offended to be subjected to either screening procedure, and people are starting to stand up and make their protests heard. It’s been very gratifying to see people of various political persuasions voice their outrage over these barbaric acts by the state.
Now, I’m not a big flyer. If you averaged out all of the travel I’ve ever done by plane across my entire life it would come out to once every other year or more (not counting flying lessons I took several years ago). Even so, I am absolutely not even considering taking an airline flight until this is resolved. A car trip may take longer, but it’s better than being ogled or felt-up by goons of the state.
