PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

I am a frequent flyer with more than half a million miles in the sky. So, I feel like I am mentally prepared for anything. I once helped push a hotel van through the sudden, unexpected snow in Austin, Texas, of all places, to get to the airport, only to find that the crew was unable to make it. That trip wound up taking 12 hours, from the hotel front door to my door in the DC area. Lots a fun.

Since I own my small business, I look for the lowest fares and go to creative lengths to save a few hundred dollars. Once, I bought two one way tickets, one out to San Diego, back from LA because it was a much better deal. As a result, I got the dreaded SSS on my boarding passes. I was given the full treatment, out and back, at each airport, starting with the ticket agent who stared at me intensely, as if she wanted to remember what a potential terrorist looked like.

While being routed to \"extra screening\", I had an education. I saw a baby in diapers being taken from its mother's arms to be patted down by the TSA. I saw an 80+ year old woman in tears being              cross examined about why she was taking her sewing kit with her. (All of this was years ago.)

Fundamentally, what I have learned is that if you question anything that is being done, if you offer the slightest hesitation, the \"security\" people turn up the dial and see how far they can push you. Before pat downs became a regular feature at airports, I questioned why a TSA employee was feeling inside my belt at the top of my pants. I told him that I thought he was supposed to ask permission first. As a result, he complained to a near by police officer. The reason? This stopped me from making a complaint about him. The police officers, not knowing what had transpired, reflexively told me about his arrest powers (a threat) before backing off.

For those who are younger and don't remember the days of far more pleasant flying, you should know that, before 9-11, 2001, passengers were seldom treated as potential hijackers or prison escapees. Before, I was treated more or less like a decent member of society. This changed overnight. I am now treated as a potential terrorist, as is everyone, every time I fly. I DIDN'T CHANGE, however, the system did. I am still not a potential terrorist, but the TSA thinks they have to treat everyone that way to avoid being sued for treating some people that way. This is cowardice of a high order, but one that serves their goals: getting the most money from Congress, having a huge number of employees and a security apparatus that could, if called on, shutdown all civil liberties of Americans.

I will never go through an X-ray machine unless there is a clear national emergency. What am I, stupid? Have I not studied a minimal amount of science and do I not know that radiation devices malfunction all the time, wounding for life (and death) those thus subjected? The TSA is counting on our collective ignorance and complacency to get it through. We need to travel for work and family needs, so, they count on us \"putting up with it\" just to get where we need to go.

If there were no other way to ensure public safety, the newest methods might be something that we would have to endured. There are many other ways that don't involve buying hundreds of millions of dollars in X-ray machines from a company with Michael Chertoff, Bush buddy, in its pay. The TSA, as far as I can tell, has never backed up a bit and re-considered the whole operation outside of the national panic that took place in 2001, a panic that was aided and abetted by Bush for the purpose of taking us into two wars. And, they say they want us to be \"partners\"? Where is the public input? Where is the opportunity to give ideas? What I see coming from the TSA is attacks on citizens who disagree and PR attempts to down play the impact of the screening and its opposition.

Doug Terry

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