Although I had been through security at Dulles many times in the past, this time I was corralled into a machine that images individuals with X-radiation.  I did not know this was going to happen nor was I aware that I could opt-out. Before I knew it I was commanded by a TSA worker how to stand in the contraption and ding!

I was not happy. I don’t need any more radiation than I’ve had in my lifetime and the moment I left that security area, I became an activist.

On my way back I was subjected to the same sort of cattle prodding but this time I opted out. That set a bunch of things in motion which culminated into a professional pat down by two TSA officers in a small room. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and the TSA officers were over-the-top polite—understandable given all the bad press they get. But still, it’s hard to shake the idea that we’ve come to this:

• Remove all contents of our pockets
• Remove our shoes
• Package liquids in a particular way limited in size in a plastic baggy
• Prohibited from carrying nail clippers or anything that can be construed as a weapon
• Remove our laptop from its travel case
• Walk through metal detectors
• Have a wand raked over our bodies
• Received dosages of radiation
• Get frisked by a TSA officer
• Sacrifice our freedoms
• More to come…

I’m sure there’s an echo of people that suggest this is all very safe and maybe it is, but I’m not going to be the beta tester, nor or my kids. Knowing what I know about the software engineering, technology, science, human greed and political expediency[1], I predict that in a very few years from now there will be a bumper crop of people with leukemia, particularly TSA workers who drape around these machines casually as well as frequent flyers, young adults and babies emerging from the womb.

In any event, when we promised ourselves that terrorists would not change our way of life, who were we kidding?