"It wasn't until a recent trip to the National Air and Space Museum that I grew to appreciate what we have lost in the past decade of suffocating airport security.
I gazed at the vestiges of American aerial power, from the slim Wright Flyer to Amelia Earhart's glowing "little red bus." These were symbols of American ingenuity and innovation that led to incalculable transformation of the modern world.
We live in an era punctuated by nostalgia -- for our vibrant economy, our reputation -- and now we can add American aviation to that list. This realization especially affected me as an American, since we have lost the simple joys of air travel in the pollution of suspicion and fear.
A colleague once joked about how bizarre our airline experience has become.
"When the metal detector went off at the Scottish airport, I joked to the security personnel that it was because of my heart of gold, and we laughed. In America, they probably would have ripped my chest open and shouted 'Where?' "
This made me contrast my headache-free experience in European and Asian countries with my experience in my own country's airports.
Everyone can probably relate to this now, Muslim or non-Muslim, but the American airport experience is much more harrowing if you have one or more of the following traits: a noticeably Muslim name, a noticeably Muslim appearance (i.e. a head scarf), or a tan (note: by default, most of the world's population).
In my case, I am all of the above.
This means that I make ostensibly ridiculous precautions. I pack nothing that has foreign language on it or is of value -- I will get extra screening and there have been enough Transportation Security Administration thefts to make me wary.
If you think we're paranoid, look up some of the crazy things that have gotten Muslims even kicked off of planes -- a T-shirt with Arabic script, a head scarf and more. Ask your Muslim friends how many times they've had to buy new luggage because their checked suitcase is returned, slashed, with a note from the TSA saying, "Your bag has been randomly chosen for an inspection."
Other "random checks" include almost certain head-and-chest checks, hand swabs, invasive searches and pat downs including "sensitive areas of the body," and even a blunt admission by TSA representatives that it's because you're wearing the Muslim covering.
Sometimes, dinner conversations post-flight can be a competition to show off battle scars, usually with Muslim women winning. We will show off about the great lengths we go through not to travel by plane -- even planning elaborate road trips and bus-train sequences."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/09/08/muslim.travel.experience/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire