WilCulture

The first time I went to an airport was an experience I will never forget. It was almost twelve years ago and my traveling companions were my two best friends. We were all newly eighteen years old and were flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was our first trip as adults and my first time on an airplane. As we stepped through the door and I saw the mosaic map of the world on the terrazzo floor, an overwhelming sense of freedom came over me. I was only traveling a few hundred miles, but seeing the possibility of going anywhere in the world literally laid out at my feet is something I will remember for the rest of my life. We checked our luggage and breezed through the security checkpoint. I was relieved that the female security screener let my backpack filled with one and one-half liters of Bacardi pass through with just a sly, knowing smile. It was clear that we were three young people just out for a good time.

The last time I went to the airport was four months ago and I would like to forget it. This time around I was traveling from Phoenix to Los Angeles to visit the same two best friends from my first flight. Arriving at the airport didn’t hold the same magic that my first trip did, being 31 instead of 18 notwithstanding. I shared a ride to the airport with a coworker who was flying out at the same time but to a different destination. We had planned to check our luggage then stop off at the bar for a quick drink before leaving. We arrived the obligatory two hours early and checked in for our flights. At the ticketing counter we show our IDs, tickets and answer the familiar series of questions: “Did you pack your own luggage?” and “Has anyone unknown to you been in possession of your luggage?” This shouldn’t take very long but when they have to do this to every single person getting on the plane it leads to incredibly long lines. Forty minute long lines in my case. My feelings of freedom were replaced by feelings of frustration. The security screeners have replaced their knowing smiles with robotic repetition of the same questions asked by the ticketing agents and measuring devices used to determine if a travel size Listerine is of an acceptable volume to be allowed into the terminal. After another forty minute long line, swallowing exaclty one-half ounce of Listerine and flashing my ID once again, we make our way to the bar. Interestingly, the bartender was the only airport employee that we encountered that didn’t ask for our IDs or seem the least bit interested in the contents of our suitcase.

Of course by now, we have become used to these restrictions. The Transportation Security Administration(TSA) was created in 2002 by the federal government with the stated purpose of preventing airplanes from being used as weapons by terrorists. Their actual purpose seems to be preventing fingernail clippers, practical amounts of hair care products and cups of coffee from entering the terminal.

The TSA represents a segment of the Department of Homeland Security that the average U.S. citizen is most familiar with, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg when comes to the erosion of our individual freedoms in the name of safety. Many authors and scholars believe that as a nation, we have a preexisting sense of generalized fear. After September 11, 2001’s terrorist attacks in New York City this fear became fixated on the possibility of terrorism invading the U.S. and affecting us and our own families. The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to this fear, as a result of the Patriot act, which gives the federal government unprecedented freedom to detect and fight terrorism. Detecting and fighting terrorism is loosely defined and strips the individual of many freedoms and Civil Liberties.

Like most U.S. citizens, I believe the need to protect ourselves from terrorism is real, but the question I have to ask myself is this: How much personal freedom am I willing to give up in order to feel safe in the face of perceived fear of terrorism? History has shown us that governments with too much power have been the major force of terror in the last century. Lenin, Mao and Hitler all brought brought terror to the world and were enabled to do so by the people of their nations.

In 2006, congress approved changes to the Foreign Intelligence Security Act(FISA) that essentially gives the federal government carte blanche to investigate U.S. citizens in the same way they investigate foreign terrorists. While the intent of preventing terrorism is good, the ability to suspend a U.S. Citizen’s Constitutional rights is very bad. There is no safety net in place in the event that a corrupt leader takes power and decides to use this act to imprison those that oppose him politically. The loose definitions of “terrorist,” “terror suspect” and “act of terror” could easily be used in this way.

So far, the steps taken by our government that strip away our freedoms have had few effects on the average citizen other than when traveling by plane and a few cases of illegal wiretapping by the NSA. Benjamin Franklin said "Those willing to give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We don’t know how far the distance is between airport inconvenience and dictatorship, but it’s a dangerous path to follow, and it’s a path I am unwilling to take.