I’m going to be very careful with my words. I know someone who works for the TSA. I need to make the disclaimer that I am in no way trying to offend or hassle this person.
With that said. The TSA does absolutely nothing that makes me feel safer. They make me feel violated and less than an American citizen. When we check our bags in Cleveland on the way home from speaking at an Unschooling conference, they had us leave our bags and verified that we left them unlocked. Dude! That’s my stuff! Airport screeners are allowed to go through your dirty laundry. Literally!
Then off to airport security you go. Leave your shoes, your jacket, all your liquids, and all metal in a bucket to they can x-ray it. Baby has a bottle of milk? Too bad, they need to screen it. Little kids? Too bad. Make ‘em lose the sweatshirt and there Nintendo Ds’s. Baby is sleeping in a sling with metal rings? Too bad take him out and walk through the metal detector again or risk having an agent search you and your baby. Actually, that wasn’t even presented to me as an option. They said, “we’ll get a female agent” and I said, “Can’t I just take it off and walk through again?” Fuck that man. I HATE flying. I don’t feel ANY safer than I did before 9/11. In fact, I feel more violated, more untrusted, and less safe than EVER.
Someone please tell me, while I was waking the baby, or tending to my confused kids, or watching them take away the baby bottle… how my husband was able to walk through the metal detector with this:
Make no mistake. This is the sharpest friggin’ knife we own. And we own a few. This one will cut flesh and bone if needs to. A quick google search for “TSA missed my knife” pulled up an awful lot of results like the three below. How do you feel now?
TSA misses Swiss Army Knife but confiscates dangerous pudding.
TSA checks keyboard but misses large Swiss Army Knife
The TSA is a complete joke and not a funny one.
(BTW – I did not make up the titles)
In the end we were thankful they did not find it. First of all, it was a mistake. TJ always has the knife in his pocket along with some change and guitar picks. He’s had it since before we got together. He’d be awfully upset if it was taken from him. Not to mention the hassle that may have been brought about if further suspicions were put on him.
I here ya! TSA has missed a multi tool with a sharp ass knife, and various other things to fuck up an airplane. My husband is a Turk with a very Muslim name and they always double screen him, but his sweet American wife walked on through with a 3 inch sharp ass blade! And do you know how many planes we boarded, international from Turkey to US. Four!
The Turks did not catch me either! I did not even know it was in the back pack till we got home and unpacked. Whatever..
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Oops. We were getting ready to board our second flight of the day when I realized I had it in my pocket still. When I was about 20 I was at the airport in Burlington VT and realized that I had it in my pocket and wasn’t checking any luggage. I stashed it in a flower pot in the airport and it was still there a week later when I came back. I’ve had it so long that I actually can’t even remember where it came from. I’m just happy I still have it
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We’ve had the same thing happen to us. And Justin’s knife was probably an inch longer than the one you had. Both very aggravating and scary.
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When Kirby came home in January for the Santa Fe Symposium, he realized in the Austin airport that he had a knife. He said he held it up, and both hands up, and said something about needing assistance. So one of the TSA guys walked him out so he could take it to the counter and check it, in his carry-on bag. When he went home, he just put it in his bag and checked it, but he hadn’t realized until he got there and started emptying his pockets that he had it. He didn’t risk going through the X-ray with it.
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