I dislike travel. I like to visit people and see sites different from where I live. It is the getting there that I dislike, especially when the getting there requires flying commercial.
I hate strangers touching my personal stuff. It totally creeps me out. They wear gloves, but where have those gloved hands been??? And why is it that every single time my checked bag is searched?
One TSA fellow told me that the books that filled my bag looked dense and similar to explosives. I stopped buying and packing books in my bag. Nothing changed, my bag was still searched.
When I travelled through Columbus, Ohio last year I had my first experience with x-ray. And of course to remove my shoes and to take my laptop out of my bag.
Here’s the thing–shortly out of grad school I taught art sessions at Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum security facility. We were put through safety training and at the end a board of confiscated weapons was brought out for a look. The idea was to show us that a patient could make a weapon out of nearly nothing.
Do I feel safe because everyone is required to take off their shoes when I know a pencil or a toothbrush in the wrong hands can cause great damage?