Looks like I made it...
Who would have ever thought that a poor farm boy from a small Iowa town could ever have made it onto an airline Watchlist?
There I was, glibly ready to get my online boarding pass from Southwest the night before I traveled, when a message was returned to my request stating that I'd have to go to the Skycap or a kiosk to check in; that I couldn't do it online. After repeated tries with the same results, (tenacity is a must in my job...), I gave up and went to the Skycap check-in the next morning...where I was told that, no, I couldn't check in there either, or at a kiosk. I had to go to the counter. I politely inquired why, and was told my name was on a Watchlist, or at least my name was close to one on a list. So I went inside, stood in line, and finally did get checked in. When I asked there why I was on a list, I was told that it was just that names like Smith, Jones, or Cooper; common names all, were sometimes flagged.
Believable?
After getting my boarding pass, I sailed right through security, shoes and pants on, carry-ons unchecked other than the usual X-ray. Now just how did that add to the security of my flight? How did that protect other passengers from my wayward ways?
Do I believe I'm on a Watchlist because my last name is Cooper? Is that more absurd than believing it may be because I support Moveon.org, Act For Change; subscribe to the Tom Payne newsletter, and visit Michael Moore's website? Or was it the Clinton book I checked out from the library? Or the letters to the editor that I've had published daring to question the President's motives in taking us to war on a lie.
I'll never know of course. But, hey, maybe Tim Robbins will invite me to his next subversive Hollywood bash.
"Those who would sacrifice a little Liberty for a little Security deserve neither and will lose both." --Benjamin Franklin
© 2005, Bob Cooper
There I was, glibly ready to get my online boarding pass from Southwest the night before I traveled, when a message was returned to my request stating that I'd have to go to the Skycap or a kiosk to check in; that I couldn't do it online. After repeated tries with the same results, (tenacity is a must in my job...), I gave up and went to the Skycap check-in the next morning...where I was told that, no, I couldn't check in there either, or at a kiosk. I had to go to the counter. I politely inquired why, and was told my name was on a Watchlist, or at least my name was close to one on a list. So I went inside, stood in line, and finally did get checked in. When I asked there why I was on a list, I was told that it was just that names like Smith, Jones, or Cooper; common names all, were sometimes flagged.
Believable?
After getting my boarding pass, I sailed right through security, shoes and pants on, carry-ons unchecked other than the usual X-ray. Now just how did that add to the security of my flight? How did that protect other passengers from my wayward ways?
Do I believe I'm on a Watchlist because my last name is Cooper? Is that more absurd than believing it may be because I support Moveon.org, Act For Change; subscribe to the Tom Payne newsletter, and visit Michael Moore's website? Or was it the Clinton book I checked out from the library? Or the letters to the editor that I've had published daring to question the President's motives in taking us to war on a lie.
I'll never know of course. But, hey, maybe Tim Robbins will invite me to his next subversive Hollywood bash.
"Those who would sacrifice a little Liberty for a little Security deserve neither and will lose both." --Benjamin Franklin
© 2005, Bob Cooper
posted by Bob | 10.8.05
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