My Bad TSA Experience.

The event.

This past weekend I attended a book signing for Neil Gaiman in Santa Rosa, CA. The event itself was awesome and I learned a lot from Neil. He's a very funny man and although I didn't get to tell him how much Sandman meant to me growing up, I did get my Absolute Sandman signed by Neil, which was the coolest thing for me.
What happened the day after the event is something different. I've only told my wife this and now, I'm sharing it on One-Zero-One.

I arrived early to the airport, I wasn't sure how many people would be on the flight and I wanted to make sure I got my rental dropped off and everything was situated with my flight.
I turned in my my keys and rental agreement and proceeded toward the security screening, which is rather small since Santa Rosa's airport is a municipal airport and only gets Turboprop and private aircraft.

When I started at security I knew it was going to be interesting when the agent doing the screening asked if I had a laptop in my bag--I'm a writer, I always have it--I told I did. "Could you take it out so it could go through the x-ray machine?" I told him, "sure."
I took it out, placed it one of the grey bus-tubs and sent it through with my shoes, hat, phone, roll
away carry-on, keys and the other things I had in my pockets.

I went through the detector, it went off, I had to take off my belt. They sent me through the second time, nothing went off. I went to grab my stuff, and I was selected "At Random" to have my shoes swiped and put into the analyzer for the chemicals that are in explosives, it tested positive.

Now the fun began, I was told, "Your shoes tested positive for chemicals that are known to be used in explosives." The types of things that use chemicals associated with explosives are toothpaste, hand lotion, shaving cream, powder from fireworks and a number of other chemicals.

Then they told me, "We're going to pat you down, would you prefer to have this done in a private area?" What am I supposed to say to this, "Yes, I would prefer you take me away from the public so you could screen me and violate my rights a little more." I wanted to say that, but since I wanted to get home to my wife and kids, I kept my mouth shut.

They went forward with their pat down, and I thought about make a smart ass remark about not going to dinner first with the guy who did the pat down, but I thought better of it.

I looked at the people going through security as I was going through my pat down, some of them had "The look of fear" in their eyes, which made me feel like shit.

I didn't think anything about the screening process at the airports, it was just another hassle at the airport, that changed in Santa Rosa this past weekend. I'd never felt humiliated in public before, this was the first time.

We see our privacy rights stripped from us, and now we know how heavy handed the government has been with the Snowden leaks.

I don't know why I was pulled out of line for the test, it didn't seem random to me. How random, do they "flip a coin", play "Eany, meany, miny, mo." What do they use as a measurement for their randomness.

I didn't like being treated that way, and I especially didn't like the looks I received from my fellow passengers while I was being held for my pat down.

I've never felt like my rights as a U.S. citizen had been violated before this instance. Now I believe every time we're pulled out of line, every time we don't say anything about what we now know the government is doing for the sake of "Security" is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Someone recently told me that if we stop one more 9/11 with these security checks and the things the NSA is doing they're fine with it. Really? You're okay with giving up the rights of 350,000,000+ people to save 3,000?

It sounds like a bad trade off to me, but what do I know? I'm just a white boy writer from Wyoming.

The only thing this had to do with Neil Gaiman is the signing. I wrote this, Neil is his own person and has his own opinions, I'm not sure of his stance on this, and thus this has nothing to do with him.