The Constitution Party of Tennessee

My business requires me to fly a lot and since I live in Memphis, Tennessee, I usually fly from the Memphis International Airport. I passed through the Memphis Airport without incident the first week in October, but between that trip and my flight on October 13, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began using the Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines currently being deployed across the nation. AIT is a high sounding name for something that amounts to a virtual strip search.

My wife and I started through the security line together but became separated at the carry-on baggage x-ray machine. I ran my bag down the conveyor and into the machine and stepped up to the line as always. The agent told me to take off my belt, which was unusual, but still I’ve seen particularly obsessive agents do it before.

When I stepped through the screening machine I was immediately in the virtual strip search machine before I knew it. The agent commanded me to put my hands over my head so he could see my naked 62-year-old body. When the scan was finished he commanded me to take the non-metallic things from my pockets for his viewing.

This whole process filled me with a rage that is hard to describe. Think of your wife and young daughters being virtually strip searched by a bunch of federal “agents.” Images of Nazi thugs with their police dogs leaping at frightened Jewish women and children came to mind, but then I regained control and thought, no this doesn’t compare to Nazi Germany, not yet.

I stood and watched the process for a while. My wife and I were the only ones who seemed to be alarmed by it. Lines of people – old women, young women, young girls, and boys – all stood naked in front of the “agents” without a word of complaint. Later in the Delta lounge, people drank their coffee as usual and passed their wait in silence.

A pilot for ExpressJet Airlines named Michael Roberts went through the process the day after I did and wrote a nice article about his experience for LewRockwell.com. Mr. Roberts was a little more aware than I and he noticed the machines and refused screening. His experience and TSA’s refusal to let him go about his work are definitely worth reading. Here’s an excerpt from his article:

“Do you want them to board your plane?” he asked. “No, but I understand there are other, better ways to keep them off. Besides, at this point I’m more concerned with the greater threat to our rights and liberties as a free society.” “Yeah, I know,” he said. And then to my amazement, he continued, “but somebody’s already taken those away.”

Mr. Roberts found that refusing the scan caused him much trouble and perhaps will even cost him his job.

You may say that it doesn’t affect you because you don’t fly, and that’s fine unless living in a thug-run police state is a concern. Now even that is problematic because the various urban police departments are being supplied with mobile units that can do drive-by virtual strip searches of cars and yes, of people. The images taken by the AIT scanners are permanently stored in a database for future federal use, as are images taken by the mobile scanners for tracking movement.

What does all this mean for America?

It means that this is no longer a free country. It means that the Constitution and Bill of Rights no longer even receive lip service. It means that our bodies are wholly owned commodities of the federal government.

How much will we as Americans be willing to take? Apparently quite a lot. How much further will the federal government be willing to go? As far as we are willing to let it go. I hate to paraphrase Howard Stern, but his advice is still pretty good: Just put your bodies in boxes and mail them to the federal government. It owns you now.

- Darrell Castle