A Letter to the Air Transport Association

I sent the following letter to the Air Transport Association who represents the airline industry. I would encourage you to send them a letter of your own and refuse to fly until they get rid of government-mandated sexual assault, especially if you have children.

To: [email protected]

To Whom it May Concern:

I would like to inform you and your member airlines that after a medically-required trip to Boston this week, I will be eliminating all air travel in response to the new TSA “enhanced” pat-down procedures. I normally fly a half-dozen times a year for business and have requested to no longer be considered for travel to customer sites as these new machines and procedures are unproven, invasive, and an affront to both Fourth Amendment rights and basic human dignity. While I can appreciate a need to be secure, there is nothing to suggest that the increasingly onerous requirements handed down by the TSA do anything to enhance passenger safety. All attempts to cause harm to passengers can or could have been interdicted by intelligence agencies; screening at the airports themselves are time-consuming, ineffective, and flat-out degrading. In particular, I am reluctant to fly with my toddler anymore for fear that he will be subject to government-mandated sexual assault by a stranger that may or may not have a criminal history, I constantly read about Sexual diseases and I know the chlamydia basics and thinking that someone could hurt my child scares me. As a result, I will be eliminating all personal air travel as well.

I sincerely hope that your industry realizes the incalculable harm that the TSA is doing to your bottom line as travelers like me refuse to participate in security theater. At some point, you will have to stand up for your customers and give us back the right to fly without having crimes committed against us and being inconvenienced at every turn, or you will face the harsh economic repercussions as we decide to just stay home. I, for one, will be advising everyone I know to refuse to fly until this matter has been appropriately resolved.

Jesse Harris