After the Pat Down, Not Even a Text Message

Last week I wrote about my adventures on a horrendous diabetes day from hell. One of the comments, well actually two, made by the TSA agent who frisked me got under my skin and I felt the need to expand on them.

The first comment I’ll expand on was actually his last comment to me.  He said “If we had been doing this last year, the underwear bomber would never have gotten on the plane.”  Now that flight originated in Amsterdam, and while I know there are TSA agents in  Vancouver, I really have no idea if there are some stationed in Amsterdam and there may be.  I didn’t point this out or ask him if there were and really just wanted to get going, but the manner in which he said it annoyed the holy beejeebus out of me.

He stepped right up next to me and said it, attempting to project power, much as a police officer would with someone not cooperating.  I didn’t flinch away and turned my head to  look right back at him, projecting my own subzero tolerance  for bullsh** and said “Right”.  I then just ignored him and eventually he went away.

The other comment was after I said I didn’t like being singled out simply because I wear a medical device. He said that he understands and imagines that all other device wearers feel the same way.

Well first of all, unless he wears such a device and has to deal with this, he does not understand.

And then when he says that he imagines that all other device wearers feel the same way, that does not make me feel one bit better.  As a matter of fact, I start to get angry; which, I’m sure, led to the comment I discussed above.

The reason I got angry is that there are now thousands of people who will be undergoing this same humiliating process everyday.  Not having to endure it because of some suspicious articles or “profiling”, but simply needing a device to stay alive.

If, instead, he had said “I’m sorry, sir, but this is my job and this is how we have to do it now” I think I would have reacted totally differently.  I wouldn’t have thought about the thousands of other people; even though I totally should have.  It would have been just him and me.

We all live with an enormous amount of bullsh** that diabetes adds to our lives.  Emotional, mental, physical, financial, insurance, glucocoasters – all of them able to happen to us at any given moment.  Now I have to add an extra layer of bullsh** from my government anytime I want to get on a plane.

I really try not to get political on my blog, but I just don’t see how I can avoid it on this one.  Isn’t our elected government supposed to be scared and intimidated by its citizens and not the other way around?