American Woman: Civil Liberties and the TSA Pat Down

Our government thinks you don't care about the new TSA scans and pat down rules. They think you will allow any intrusion on your civil rights as long as the authorities tell you that it is necessary to "fight terror".

Is it?

Will you?

As a Pagan woman whose tradition has no problem with nudity, per se, I can stand to have this done to me when I travel but I completely reject the idea that my "choices" should be intrusion and radiation or being groped by strangers; all done on the orders of my government when I have done nothing wrong. Nor do I believe that TSA's newest attempt at security theater will make me one wit safer. So I plan to use my voice to protest this obscene violation of my civil rights.

All this makes me wonder: If a socially liberal, nudist beach loving eco-feminist like me feels that way, how must other, more socially conservative (or, if you prefer, modest) women feel about this intrusion? In one of the worst bits of irony to date in the "war on terror" we find our government "defending our freedom" against men who are infamous for the subjugation and abuse of women in every country where they have influence by subjecting women (and men) to sexual abuse here at home.

I keep thinking about these modest women, women who, however different their lives or world views might be from my own, I respect as human beings and might well enjoy knowing. So, here we are today: All women are now told by TSA that that if they don't like it, they don't have to fly. And why? Because patriarchal-minded extremists (both foreign and domestic) gain power from our fear. Really, TSA? Really?

Perhaps you are one of those people who believe that such measures (measures even security conscious Israel does not impose on travelers) are necessary, especially when dealing with foreigners and non-citizens. If you believe that anything goes in this fight, please imagine for a moment that it is you working as an hourly-wage TSA employee, performing sexually intrusive acts on American-born women like these:

* A Catholic lay worker flying out to serve families living in the dangerous and disease-infested camps of Haiti

* A Quaker nurse who chooses to wear modest dress, traveling to her work with AIDS patients in Africa

* A elderly Buddhist nun bringing books and toys to orphans in Nepal

* A Hindu academic traveling to a woman's conference in Switzerland who is traveling with her 12 year old daughter.

* A Muslim pediatrician whose skills are urgently needed to help child refugees after the recent earthquakes, floods and famine in Pakistan.

* A Baptist social worker using her vacation time to bring vital burn medications to the hundreds hurt in the volcanic eruptions in Indonesia.

What have such women ever done to us that we would hurt them so?

These women are fictional, if plausible, examples of people traveling right now and they are offered here to make a point which is that good people are being hurt by this rule. Already one rape survivor has been traumatized by this treatment. As reported in Newsweek:

For women and men who have already been sexually assaulted, the new screening rules—or just the threat of these rules—present a very real danger. They can be triggering events, setting off a post traumatic-stress reaction...“After a sexual assault, it seems that many survivors have difficulty having their bodies touched by other people,” says Shannon Lambert, founder of the Pandora Project, a nonprofit organization that provides support and information to survivors of rape and sexual abuse. This fear of contact even extends to partners and, often, medical professionals. “A lot of survivors do not want to be in positions where they’re vulnerable. They put up defenses so that they can be in control of their body. In cases like this, it seems like some of that control is going away.”

I, for one, agree with those who argue that full frontal nudity does not make us safer and I have to wonder how parents feel about having their children subjected to either unnecessary radiation and/or intrusive handling.

Let me end with two questions:

* Are we as a nation, willing to hand over our dignity and our civil rights to the incompetent and untrustworthy officials at TSA?

* Will you trust that your own naked-as-a-jaybird scans won't end up on the net?

Somewhere the terrorists are laughing.

Sia

Art found here

P.S. This isn't just about women, of course. Noted Humorist Dave Barry didn't find his own patdown very amusing.

Related Articles:

Nudity at Events: Our top 13 reasons why you can't always bear all

Update:

Former Bush Homeland Chief Got Sweetheart Deal Selling Scanners to TSA

The Fixer: How one Monk came to fight cover ups & child abuse in the Catholic Church

On Easter Sunday an acclaimed radio show called This American Life ran a moving and true story about a Monk who went from helping to cover up abuse by thousands of priests to helping lawyers for those abused find the secret files kept by the church on such cases. He is someone you should know.

Patrick Wall was a special kind of monk. He was a fixer. The Catholic church sent him to problem parishes where priests had been removed because of scandal. His job was to come in, keep events from going public and smooth things over until a permanent replacement priest was found. But after four different churches in four years, after covering up for pedophiles and adulterers and liars and embezzlers he decided to make a change. Carl Marziali tells his story. (21 minutes)

You can listen to this story on NPR at this link: The Enemy Within

You can also read Wall's book titled, Sex, Priests and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church's 2,000 Year Old Paper Trail of Sex Abuse.

Meanwhile, on Easter Sunday, a senior Cardinal and friend of the Pope has rejected the abuse claims in Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Latin America and the U.S. (1) as "petty gossip".

The BBC reports in that same story that the Pope

... has been accused personally of failing to take action against a suspected abuser during his tenure as archbishop of Munich - a claim the Vatican strongly denies.

Critics also say that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases, he did not act against a priest in the US state of Wisconsin who is thought to have abused some 200 deaf boys.

Calls have gone up throughout the Catholic world for the Pope to resign.

My thoughts today are with all those who were hurt by those they trusted.

My thanks to Ira Glass and the staff at This American Life. It is one of the best produced and most interesting show's you'll find. I recommend listening to their podcast.

Sia

Endnote:

(1) See Abuse Claims by Country - Wikipedia

Related Articles

Review of Sex, Priests and Secret Codes at Nobeliefs..com

She Who Watches

She Who Watches

Sinead O'Connor has called for a Catholic boycot to protest years of sexual abuse of children and the cover-up that followed by priests in Ireland and those in charge at the Vatican. I recommend watching the video of the interview she gave to Anderson Cooper on this subject (via that link). The oath the young boys were made to take not to reveal their abuse is chilling.

O'Connor's remarks, part of which I quote below, are honest, heartfelt and, I think, balanced, given the fact that she herself is a survivor of both church and child abuse. (1)

I’m a Catholic, and I love God,” she told The L.A. Times. “That’s why I object to what these people are doing to the religion that I was born into.”

...Speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN this week, Ms. O’Connor argued that church policies were the problem. She pointed out that the man who now leads the Catholic Church in Ireland personally swore to secrecy two children who were abused by a priest in the 1970s, and was, as he has said, following the rules at the time. She also denied that she was anti-Catholic but said she felt let down by the leaders of the church.

Personally I would say I am a Catholic woman. I am proud to be a Catholic woman. I separate, sometimes, the difference between God and religion. I’m passionately in love with what I would call the Holy Spirit. I don’t believe it matters if you call it God, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Fred or Daisy. It’s the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t matter. But what I would like to see as a Catholic is actually Christian, honest people running the shop.

Read her Op-Ed for the Washington Post, which is a rational and heartfelt call for justice. In this piece she notes that "The Vatican is acting as though it doesn't believe in a God who watches" and writes that Irish Catholics are "in a dysfunctional relationship with an abusive organization."

There are reasons for this. I think that the great Irish writer and journalist Nuala O'Faolain said it best when she wrote:

A lot of us suffered in the Ireland of my day,” she later said. “We came out of a culture where women were utterly powerless and children had no value. If you were hit at school you were hit at home for being hit at school. It goes without saying there was no sex education. The only education a lot of us got was in neglect and being unloved.

I also agree with O'Conner when she says that "Rome...must answer for (their part in this) with a full confession and in a criminal investigation."

She Who Watches

That comment reminded me of the famous Pacific Northwest Native American myth about what it takes to make a good leader titled She Who Watches. It has long been one of my favorite stories. One version of the myth comes from artist Lillian Pitt's website. Ms. Pitt is famous for her masks and other work based on the legends of her people. (2)

There was this village on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge. And this was long ago when people were not yet real people, and that is when we could talk to the animals.

And so Coyote — the Trickster — came down the river to the village and asked the people if they were living well. And they said "Yes, we are, but you need to talk to our chief, Tsagaglal. She lives up in the hill."

So Coyote pranced up the hill and asked Tsagaglal if she was a good chief or one of those evildoers. She said, "No, my people live well. We have lots of salmon, venison, berries, roots, good houses. Why do you ask?" And Coyote said, "Changes are going to happen. How will you watch over your people?" And so she didn't know.

And it was at that time that Coyote changed her into a rock to watch her people forever.

May we all be good watchers and leaders, and speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves,

Sia

Endnotes:

(1) Ms O'Connor has led a difficult and troubled life for many reasons, including the fact that she suffers from bi-polar disorder. Her critics have tried to use this to negate her criticism of the church's behavior. It isn't working.

If a group, any group, abuses women and children they can expect to pay a price somewhere down the line. Calling those who tell the truth either crazy or flaky doesn't change the facts. Ms. O'Connor is using her fame to speak out for the children of Ireland, knowing full well that that her personal troubles will be brought up, yet again, in an effort to disprove her arguments. I applaud her for her courage.

(2) She Who Watches, whose Native name is Tsagaglal, is an image created in stone. Unlike most of the rock images found in the region, which are either rock etchings (petroglyphs) or rock paintings (pictographs), She Who Watches is both.

She sits high up on a bluff, overlooking the village of Wishxam, the village where Lillian's great grandmother used to live.

She Who Watches was the first rock image that Lillian ever saw or knew anything about, and it was only because an elder took her to see it. The elder though it would be good for Lillian to learn something of her heritage and of her grandmother's village.

Art: Bronze Mask, She Who Watches, by Lillian Pitt at the NW by NW Gallery

Related Articles:

When Is A Sex-positive Practice, Not? by the Rev. Anne Hill

Do You Know What a "Wifey" Is? by Rev. Dr. Aleese Moore-Orbih

Recommended Reading:

Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O'Faolain