I sent these letters to US Air and Orbitz earlier this week. I will be posting updates on my communications with these companies regarding their complicity in abuse of the 4th Amendment on a regular basis on this blog.
Today's update: no response from either company, but I expect that they have only just received the letters.
USAir_scanner1
Orbitz_scanner1
Great!!
ReplyDeleteI did the same and got a response that could have been written by Mikulski's office.
http://michaelhargadon.blogspot.com/2010/10/write-your-air-carrier-today.html
@Mike
ReplyDeleteI did see your letter the other day after I mailed mine out. Hopefully others will catch on!
Have you researched the California airport for the return trip? Will they have back scatter?
ReplyDeleteI was frisked in Germany this summer before boarding my flight to the US. I did not enjoy it, but submitted because I was in no position to complain as a non-citizen of Germany, wanting to return to the United States that day. The thing is that I am pretty sure the Germans were just enforcing US regs for US bound flights. I would have been even less happy about the frisk for my pregnant wife or daughter.
Great letter and great backbone standing your ground. Unfortunately I cant join you on this cause because my lively-hood requires flying at the moment.
If you have further correspondence you should mention how this is a "materially adverse change" to the "contract of carriage."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_adverse_change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_of_carriage
Thanks for the tip. As a frequent flyer, you can certainly fight back in other ways! Print out some pamphlets (like the one I link to at dontscan.us) and hand them out while in the security line to your fellow frequent flyers. Demand to opt-out despite the embarrassing pat-down. etc...
ReplyDeleteDr. Muratore, thanks for taking some initiative and setting an example. I just read your letter on Lew Rockwell's website. Complicit companies like Orbitz and US Air should have been hearing this call from us long before now.
ReplyDeleteAlong a tangential vein, a few thoughts came to mind regarding the following two passages:
“I am deeply concerned about the non-choice of a backscatter scan or an enhanced pat-down for my daughter and myself.”
“I don't intend to be frisked now and I don't want my daughter to be frisked before her second birthday.”
May I ask why you do not include your husband as an object of your concern? Is he not part of the family for whom you voice this most valid and righteous outrage?
May I also ask why, when mentioning your child, you rightly emphasize her age, but irrelevantly emphasize her sex. Do you believe that the idea of a daughter physically harmed and electronically stripped by government agents imparts more rhetorical effect than that of a boy similarly abused?
Cumulative ionizing radiation is as dangerous to males as it is to females. Modesty in public places is as much an issue for good men as it is for proper women. Coercive, aggressive body searches are as disgusting and as offensive to men as they are to women.
No doubt you meant no offense. However, I hope your oversight in this regard does not reflect what I see as a disturbing, nearly universal notion hovering just beyond the edges of our collective awareness nowadays, especially among boys and men themselves, that males are somehow less worthy of our alarmed concern, less socially valuable - more expendable, shall we say - than girls and women.
That said, given your semantic and grammatical constraints, I may be reading more into this than is warranted. If I have missed the mark, please correct me.
Respectfully,
Andrew
@Anonymous aka Andrew-
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I decided it was best if I did not go on a tangent trying to justify his decision when it's really just that he doesn't have the vacation time to spend 1-3 additional days traveling. He is indeed less modest than I, but that is irrelevant from a human rights perspective. We are indeed worried about the effect that the radiation will have on our future progeny (via testicular radiation) so he will take the pat-down. But if the scanners were somehow proven to be completely safe, I would still object to their invasion of our rights.
As for my child's sex, it is irrelevant and no further meaning was intended. If I had a son, that sentence would read "my son..."
http://stoptsascanners.blogspot.com/2010/10/letters-to-us-air-and-orbitz.html
ReplyDeleteSAY NO TO TOTAL BODY SCANNERS NOW .
NO,NO,NO,NO.
NOT NEEDED .
PAT DOWN ANY DAY .