Alyssa Thomas, a six year old, was placed on the land of the
free and home of the brave’s no fly list by the Department of Homeland
Security. When notified of their
error they refused to remove her name.
Bureaucratic arrogance and heartlessness is not a failing just of
Fascist and Communist systems. We
grow our own.
As the forces wanting the US to sink ever more deeply into authoritarianism it becomes
increasingly important for citizens, particularly of unpopular minorities, to
push back. Pharos, in a comment on
the Huffingtonpost story that first alerted me to it suggested we write our Representatives and Senators. I think this might work if a modest number of people did so
– and pay big dividends for us all down the line.
Here is a possible letter and contact information for your
Senators and Representative. They
will not likely read it, but members of their staff will, and if the arrogant
idiots at Homeland Security get enough queries, perhaps this policy will be
changed in the direction of decency.
Details below the fold:
Six year old Alyssa Thomas turned up on a no fly list. Mistakes happen. But when her father, a doctor in Ohio,
informed “Homeland Security” that they had made a mistake, according to AOL and
other news sources they replied that nothing in her file will be changed. TSA may as well have written “We are stupid and wrong, and proud of it.”
Perhaps you wonder why so many of us are developing a
contempt for government, a contempt that is dangerous for the long term
well-being of our country? This
kind of Kafkaesque reasoning is partly why.
There may be someone with the same or similar name, but if
so Homeland Security has an obligation to provide enough information that
innocent people are not barred from flying or put through unnecessary
hassles. As I remember, Senator
Kennedy was on the list at one time.
The potential for abuse, petty score settling, and simple harassment is
too great under the Bush era mentality that set this thing up. I hope you agree
there is still the rule of law in this country, and at a minimum that means a
private citizen’s life cannot be made more difficult because of an arbitrary
and irresponsible decision by some bureaucrat.
You can find out more here
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/25/6.yr-old.on.no.fly.list.WJW?hpt=T2
I ask you to please see what can be done to rectify this
travesty to common sense and justice and waste of taxpayer money. I look forward to hearing from you what
you have done to safeguard your constituents, and Americans in general, from
this kind of idiocy.
Sincerely,
Your name
You can find contact information for your Senators and your
Representatives here:
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