New Hampshire Bill Would Make TSA Patdowns Sexual Assault

I've been reading so much stuff on the TSA 'enhanced Pat-Down" (enhanced is supposed to mean made better, isn't it?) that my head feels clotted with all the information and I'm trying to figure out where and how to write about this coherently.   A series of short specific posts seems the better approach - more focused, more likely to be read.  But an integrated look at the big picture needs to part of this too. 

I'm at the point where I believe it is truly outrageous for people who have a medical prosthetic to be singled out for the new scanner and the 'pat-down' without any other reason to believe they are terrorists.  (The 'without any other reason' is important.) In fact, with strong reasons to believe they are NOT terrorists.  I read today a story in one of the emails to Rep. Cissna's from a woman who'd just had a mastectomy

"I had two very aggressive TSA officers in _____ insist that they were going to rifle through my bandages to look for explosives.  I finally just pulled up my shirt and let them look at the tubes, bandages and blood collectors, and felt completely humiliated.  It had been less than a week since my double mastectomy and removal of my ovaries, (in fact I still had drains in, and my hospital ID bracelet on my wrist) and I was not in the mood for any of it.  I just wanted to get home, as I was in soooo much pain from all of the traveling."

This was two years ago - before the new enhanced 'pat-downs.' That's just one of many similar stories, though a bit more graphic than most.  You can see how common sense is not allowed to interfere with the rules that require . . . well I'm not sure what the rules require.  It seems the rules require that if you have metal in you, you get both a body-scan AND a pat-down. Even if you travel weekly.  Even if you have a card from your doctor.  Even if a cursory check online would show you to be someone in a responsible position and a pillar of the your local American community.  The machine, not reason, decides you must be searched. 

An aside:  I also found a law suit making pretty much the same argument - that scanners that show your nude body and pat-downs should not be the primary screening method to travel by air in the US.  I'll do another post on that. 

I just wanted to give you some context for why I'm sympathetic to the sentiment behind this new legislation.  I'm not sure this is the best way to go - it clearly would set up a show-down between federal and state agents - but it's a sign of how strongly people feel and how powerless they feel.  The March 1 report from WMUR New Hampshire says there's little support for this bill.

CONCORD, N.H. -- Lawmakers and residents engaged in heated debate Tuesday over a bill that would make random airport security pat-downs and body scans criminal in New Hampshire.

The bill (HB628-FN) "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault," according to the introductory text of the bill.

"Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry.

"That is a crime in this state, and we should charge them every single time," said bill co-sponsor Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield.

There's video at the link as well.

Alaska State Rep. Pete Petersen on Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary

This past week, March 1, 2011 to be exact, marked the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy signing into law the US Peace Corps.  There is a lot happening all year and Alaskan Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs ) are planning a number of events. 

The only Alaska legislator I can find who is also an RPCV is Pete Petersen.  He served as an agricultural volunteer (he grew up on a farm in Iowa) in the Dominican Republic.  I talked to him about what he'd gotten out of the Peace Corps.  My sound card was full Thursday, so I went back again on Friday.  But I only got a bit of our conversation on video.  Here's a bit of that bit. 

Juneau 2010 and 2011 and Avalanche Video

March 4, 2010

We knew that last year was a warm year in Juneau when we were here.

This year it's been in the teens for about a week now with very strong to moderate winds downtown.  But today, it was sunny and one of my hosts and I went for a walk up Basin Road.  I was well wrapped.  But I've gone back to find a couple of pictures I posted on March 4, 2010, like the one above.  It had rained and then in the morning there was a light snow cover.  You can still see the grass.

March 4, 2011

This picture is about two blocks away from the previous picture, a year later.  The plowed snow edges the roads and roof snow curls downward.

Basin Road 2011

A little ways up, Basin Road at this point was almost always bare of snow last year.

Basin Road Feb. 3, 2010

This one on the right was the closest match I could find.  It was taken Feb 3, 2010 just after it snowed.  Flakes were still coming down. There's more snow than this part of the road had most of the three months we were here.  Last year, when it snowed, it was gone within a day or two.





But it was great getting up the road and past the houses.  It wasn't long before we realized that there was a a snow waterfall on the far side.   With my tiny camera, it's obvious we weren't in any imminent danger, but you can see, in the video, the snow tumbling down the mountain.  It went on for quite a while.  In the video there are shots of it from two different locations.

One Person Making a Difference - The Iron Dog and Suicide Prevention in Rural Alaska

There are so many issues to write about here in Juneau when you wander around the Capitol.  It's hard to know where to start and how to shape a post so it reaches people.  I'm just going to throw this one out and try to follow up with more on it.

I've been talking to an ordinary, remarkable woman who works in Rep. Alan Dick's office.  After noting a rash of suicides by young men in rural Alaska in a short period, she got desperate.  She and her husband own the village store in Tanana and she sees and hears a lot from all the people coming into the store.

While legislators sit in Juneau and argue abstractly about wording, and worry about who will get credit for a bill, and how it all will affect their next election, Cynthia couldn't stand it any more and last November she sent this letter:

November 20, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing a letter with sadness and concern. Many of you have heard of our rash of suicides in our Alaskan Villages, all young men; many our friends and dear family members. In a village, especially with us in our store business, you see these baby boys grow into young men and they are part of your everyday life year round. This is a serious epidemic in all rural Alaska villages: we need to do something immediately. We need to start talking about it! Everyone needs to step out of their comfort zones, stop being self-centered and selfish. We need to go beyond the call of duty to help our children, and village to survive this disaster. There are many people who should be doing something and they are NOT! We as individuals, moms, dads and concerned community members need to bring this demon to light, and the time is now! Actually, yesterday!

Our family has been part of the Iron Dog Snow Machine race, a group of wonderful, hard-working young men, who a lot of our your village boys look up to; they come to the store to pour over the Iron Dog Racing Pamphlet. They pick out their favorite racers, get to the computer to follow their teams and run to the riverbanks to meet and greet them. These racing men are celebrities among the groups of children in the different rural communities. They look up to these men as Heroes. I approached last years Iron Dog Champions; Tyler Huntington of Galena and Chris Olds of Eagle River about this issue of suicide. These two young aspiring athletes are willing to take on the huge task of educating and bringing awareness to the prevention of suicide. I am in the early stage with the boys; developing a strategy to attack this huge problem. I am wishfully thinking, dreaming, kicking around ideas and talking out loud to you about a plan I foresee to help with this cause.

Let’s establish a bank account for donations, get the boys sports cards with their pictures on the snow machines “Team 10” on the back have a catchy phrase such as “take a ride to prevent suicide!” include prevention hotlines, and phone numbers for crisis centers in Alaska or whatever is appropriate. We can have the boys handout the cards and talk in villages with their layovers—McGrath, Galena, Unalakleet, Nome, Tanana etc. We should go to all the newspapers—statewide (Nome, Bethel, Barrow etc.) and publicize this. I would like the funds raised for the awareness be used for a HUGE Educational and Awareness Summit in Galena. I’ve chosen Galena because one, it’s Tyler’s home town; two, there are two hundred rural youth from all over Alaska at the Galena Interior Learning Academy; plus a another school uptown ranging from grades K-12. Galena is also surrounded by many villages in the Yukon—Koyukuk Region that is plagued with this epidemic. This reminds me of the Iditarod race, where people are dying and we all need to work together to get the medicine to our villages to save our children.

What is the future of out villages when we have no young men to lead us? No elder Native men to guide love and nurture our children. Our future looks dim today, it’s very sad. I believe this gathering should bring our problem to light, families are a key and foundation, and they should be included! We need professional people, counselors (esp. Family Counseling), inspirational speakers, young leaders who have succeeded to tell their stories. Open forum discussions, as communities what are we doing wrong? How can we as individuals help? What can we look for? We need an infrastructure put in place to continue support; training needs to be assimilated in the program. We cannot go to meetings, get free travel, free hotels, free car rentals and per diem and not bring anything home to benefit our children and the future survival of our homes. We need to walk our talk, get out from our computer desks; let’s start putting pieces of our puzzle back together; make us whole again.

Initially our Native people were the toughest of the tough! Made to go an extra mile to survive the harshest environments; but look at us today! We are in a slow downward spiral, our children are dying and we are walking away as they cry and need our help. I would like all of you to seriously read this, pray and ponder about it. Do some soul searching; find what you as an individual can do in your corner of the world. Let’s band together as a whole to follow this mission through. Please call or email me, if you can contribute to our mission.

I’ve discussed this with Tyler and Chris, The Iron Dog Director and the Galena School. If any of you know of any financial assistance, donations, grants, counselors, speakers, family counselors etc. in your city, tribal, state or federal offices ask for help; anything will help. I am open to all assistance and suggestions; it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this, please make it your mission. Hopefully through all of our unselfish contributions we can make a good change for our children’s future. It’s time to go to war, get your troops together and meet me on the front lines.

With Much Love,

Cynthia Erickson and Family

P.S. I have e-mailed this to my circle of friends and family, please forward this on to yours.

Once she got started, others helped.  There was a second letter and Cynthia started connecting.  The State of Alaska Suicide Prevention Council got involved and now has information on their webpage about the Iron Dog Suicide Prevention program.

But there is still a lot to do and Cynthia is busy making lists of villages and contacts.  This has to have the cooperation of the villages, but suicide is just one of the symptoms of other problems.  Coming down to Juneau to work in Rep. Dick's office was another big decision for her to meet people who can help change how the State works with rural Alaska. 

I realize this post sounds pretty glowing and I acknowledge that most of the information I got was from Cynthia herself.  But she's pretty convincing and I'm hoping to get some video of her so you can see for yourself why she's got me enthusiastic about this.  She lives in the middle of the problems.  She knows that silence has been a big enemy.  And she knows she has to find ways to break the silence so that people will do something instead of looking away. 

And I would also say that Cynthia wasn't real happy about my taking a picture or focusing on her.  But she's so committed to ending youth suicides that she's let me do this.

How much of a difference has this made?  I'm not sure.  Maybe there are people out there in rural Alaska who can comment on this.

"It's like being a 5 year old trying to catch up . . ." New Rep. Alan Dick

I met new District 6 (Interior Alaska north of Fairbanks) representative Alan Dick today and asked him what it is like getting started in Juneau.   Here's what he said:



He defeated Democratic incumbent Woodie Salmon in November.  District 6 is the largest state house district in the US according to a Christopher Eshelman article in the Fairbanks Newsminer on Rep. Dick.

Capitol's Quiet - Lawmakers at Energy Council in DC

That's from one of the many tv monitors scrolling the meeting schedules in the Capitol.

BASIS - the Legislative website - tells it more clearly in the adjournment announcements for both houses of the legislature.

Checking today with the Legislative Affairs Office,  I learned that 14 of the 20 State Senators have traveled to Washington for the Energy Council Conference:

Senator John Coghill (R)
Senator Fred Dyson (R)
Senator Cathy Giessel (R)
Senator Charlie Huggins (R)
Senator Lesil McGuire (R)
Senator Linda Menard (R)
Senator Bert Stedman (R)
Senator Gary Stevens (R)
Senator Joe Thomas (R)
Senator Tom Wagoner (R)
Senator Johnny Ellis (D)
Senator Lyman Hoffman (D)
Senator Donny Olson (D)
Senator Joe Paskvan (D)

And 14 of the 40 members of the House went

Rep. Tammie Wilson (R)
Rep. Anna Fairclough (R)
Rep. Eric Feige (R)
Rep. Carl Gatto (R)
Rep. Craig Johnson (R)
Rep. Bob Lynn (R)
Rep. Lance Pruitt (R)
Rep. Dan Saddler (R)
Rep. Paul Seaton (R)
Rep. Reggie Joule (D) (But part of the House Majority)

Rep. Chris Tuck (D)
Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D)
Rep. Neal Foster (D)
Rep. Berta Gardner (D)


It's not easy finding hard information online about the "Energy Council" Conference.  People seem to have pretty much the same blurb as this one from a Tim Bradner piece at the Alaska Journal of Commerce:

The council is an association of legislators from energy-producing states, Alberta and one foreign nation, Venezuela.
Senate President Gary Stevens said legislative leaders will hold a press conference while the state's lawmakers are in the nation's capital to talk about what they are doing, and will hold another press conference when they return to Juneau to explain what they accomplished.
Besides the meetings of the council itself the Alaska lawmakers will also meet with important federal officials, such as at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that regulates pipelines and hydroelectric projects, both important in Alaska. [I guess Canada isn't a foreign nation.]

For a bit more, Representative Joe Green wrote about the 2002 Energy Council and House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula wrote about the 2010 Conference.

Keeping Track of Education in the Legislature with Shana Crondahl

I've been getting comments from Shana Crondahl for a while now on this blog - particularly last year when I was in Juneau.  So I thought while I was down here it would be a good idea to get in contact with her.

She's from Juneau and knows her way around the legislature and her job is writing a newsletter on education issues going through the legislature.  She also started a blog which she updates now and then. (Since I only have the ten most recently updated blogs in the Alaska Blogs section on the right, it only pops up now and then when she makes an update, but you can go to it here.  The blog is just a teaser for the much more complete reports she does.)

We had lunch at the Silverbow.  It's still cold and windy here.  (Someone told me about flying in and it got so bumpy at 30,000 feet that the flight attendants just kneeled on the floor and held onto their carts.)  So I wanted a hot soup.

Here's a video I took at the end.  I caught her a bit by surprise, but she was a good sport.  I should have been paying more attention to those lights, sorry.



If you're interested in learning more about the Alaska Education Update the contact information is in the title box at the top of the blog.

Bitter Milk

There's been a book on the table where I'm staying called Bitter Milk.  I've been trying to imagine what it might mean.  Think about it.  What is bitter milk?  Why would it be the title of a book on women and teaching?   Pause a bit and think about it.  I know.  Today we just want the answers.  So most of you are going to rush ahead to see without stopping to think about it.  But such brain exercises are important to keep our grey muscle agile.  But the instant gratification google offers us is making us forgot to take those pauses and let our brains do the thinking.  So look at the clock on your computer screen - better yet if you have a timer set it for 30 seconds - then shut your eyes and think about bitter milk for half a minute.  Yes, you do have 30 seconds to spare.  That's all I ask. 

OK.  That was kind of nice, to close your eyes and think for 30 seconds, wasn't it?  Here's what the author says in the preface:

In Sri Lanka, young women sometimes experience psychotic responses to adolescence as they struggle with the ambivalence provoked by the separation from their families.  In Medusa's Hair the anthropologist Gananath Obeyeskere tells us that these periods of distress are called "dark night of the soul" experiences.  He describes a ritual tonic that the afflicted girls drink to release them from their trouble.  It is called bitter milk and is a mixture of milk and crushed margosa leaves, the same bitter potion that mothers apply to their nipples when they wish to wean their babies.

 I can imagine author Grumet sipping bitter milk and swishing it gently in her mouth as she tastes and feels its meaning:

Bitter milk, fluid of contradictions, love and rejection, sustenance and abstinence, nurturance and denial.

She then goes on to say that these are the contradictions of teaching and her book explores these contradictions as she tries to understand what teaching means to women.  

Best Jobs For Abusers - Is the Stanford Prison Experiment Relevant?

While reading the emails sent to Rep. Sharon Cissna (I've posted some excerpts here)   I read a number of reports from people - both men and women - about the invasiveness of the 'pat-downs' they've endured.  Many of these people are older women who have had mastectomies, but also men and women who are amputees and/or have metal replacements for hips and other parts of their bodies.  They are people like my nearly 90 year old mother who are not likely to be terrorists suspects, but because of surgical procedures and TSA's screening protocol, are now likely to have their groins and chests touched by TSA agents.  (My mom, like many of the email writers, won't fly because of this.)

There were lots of lists of "best jobs for _____."  Here are some examples:

• Best Jobs for Moms
• Top  Jobs for Disabled Individuals.  
• 25 best jobs for introverts      

Link to See Complete Cartoon

Why not a list of best jobs for abusers?  People who want to use their power over others - to humiliate them, whether sexually or otherwise, or even just to take advantage of their vulnerability.

I'm not sure whether the priesthood in the Catholic church is a good job option for abusers any longer, plus it takes a lot of preparation to get those jobs.

Prison guards and nursing home jobs also give opportunities for abusers to take advantage of vulnerable people.

And TSA now must be seen as one of the best options.  In the others, the abuser tendencies are not sanctioned and are grounds for dismissal and criminal prosecution if discovered.  But at TSA, they are official policy.  And for the exhibitionist abuser there's a bonus to abusing people openly in a public place. 

Sarcasm Alert:  I learned teaching that not everyone gets sarcasm.  I remember one class where the students kept telling a classmate, "He's being sarcastic.  He doesn't really mean it."  I mention it here because while it might appear I'm taking this lightly, I'm not.  This is serious stuff.  And while I'm confident that most TSA workers are upstanding employees who are only trying to do their difficult jobs well, there are TSA workers who enjoy touching people's "junk" and otherwise humiliating them.

But why are the normal TSA workers willing to rub their hands in the groins and on the breasts of elderly women and men who clearly are not terrorists?    I suspect that for the normally non-abuser TSA employee,  the  Stanford Prison Experiment is relevant here.

In that controversial experiment, Dr. Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison using Stanford students who had been chosen because of their emotional and psychological stability. They were divided into prisoners and guards. They very quickly got into their roles and the guards were soon abusing the prisoners so that six days into the two week experiment it had to be called off. Dr. Zimbardo explains what happened - with footage of the experiment - in the YouTube video I found posted by mr1001nights.





I'd note there has been a lot of criticism about the ethics of this experiment which is addressed in the Stanford Prison Experiment link.

I would guess the same dynamics work out with TSA workers. They get into their roles and learn to believe that passengers should obey them and that groping them is very appropriate behavior and if passengers resist, they probably deserve punishment. The TSA workers have an added incentive - their paychecks and perks, which they would lose if they protested their orders.

So, even if all the TSA employees were psychologically and emotionally well adjusted when they began their jobs, if the Stanford Prison Experiment lessons are valid here, they would fall into abusive roles.

The Milgram experiment had a similar result - where people off the street are found to give greater and greater electric shocks (or so they think) to learners who miss the questions. Unlike in the Stanford experiment, Milgram's 'learners' were actors who were not actually being shocked. But Milgram's experiment demonstrated how normal people would stray way beyond the bounds of appropriate behavior if told to do so by an authority. YouTube has footage of the Milgram experiments too.

I think the TSA workers have similarly strayed way beyond acceptable behavior in their intrusive pat-downs of people who have absolutely nothing to link them to terrorism except that their artificial hips set off the metal detector or their mastectomies looked strange in the scanner.

Cold Wind, Overlapping Roles, University Boosters Caucus, Blogging

I saw on BASIS that the new UAA Chancellor Tom Case was going to be in Juneau today.

(S)UNIVERSITY BOOSTERS CAUCUS OTHER COMMITTEE *
Feb 28 Monday 4:00 PM CAPITOL 106
Special Legislative Briefing:
Welcoming Chancellor Brian Rogers of UAF,
Outgoing Chancellor Fran Ulmer and Incoming
Chancellor Tom Case of UAA, and Chancellor
John Pugh of UAS
Final Update from Chancellor Ulmer and
Celebration of her Career in Public Service

Being a blogger sometimes puts me in conflict with other roles I have.  With my children, it's clear.  They are mentioned only when necessary, not by name, briefly, and if more than that, with their permission.   But I've been blogging about the UAA chancellor search that picked Tom Case.  As a former faculty member at UAA who served under then Dean Tom Case, I was in a potentially awkward position.  I didn't hesitate to identify my relationship with Case and the fact that my experience suggested his integrity was not something I questioned.  But I hadn't talked to him since last March (or April)  and I did feel the need to talk to him about all this.



So, I took off into the piercing downtown Juneau wind - it got colder and windier since I posted the video of Saturday's wind.  But whatever loose snow there was to make that Saturday video convincing has been blown away.  Sunday we were going to walk the seven or eight blocks to the Nickelodeon to the see the Academy Award nominated animated shorts, and the wind was so strong, we turned back and drove.  It wasn't as bad today, but it still is a factor to calculate as you take each step.   



I did get to see Tom Case and we did get to spend some 'quality time' together and affirm our respect for each other and I got to identify my concerns - which he indicated he'd already read.  I don't think there is much to blog about here.  I did say I was talking to him in various capacities.  More it was a private checking-in between two people who haven't talked for a while and making sure we were both still ok with things.  I know he learned a lot as dean and I know that he was already more sensitive to academic culture than President Gamble has so far proven to be.  He also assured me that President Gamble has learned a lot in the last month. 

For *Photo Details See Below

The Booster Caucus is basically Senators and Representatives who support the University - mainly from the three main campus sites of Fairbanks, Juneau, and Anchorage.  Today's main activity was to honor outgoing UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer.  Ulmer's career has included being city council member and mayor of Juneau, state legislator from Juneau, Lt. Gov., head of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at UAA, and Chancellor of UAA.  But that's just a list.  She is one extremely smart, efficient, and personable person who has impressed me since I first met her.  If only the world had seen Fran Ulmer as a representative of Alaska instead of a certain former Governor, they would have seen a one of the many extremely talented women leaders whose hard work in support of Alaska has helped make us as good as we are.

You don't have to take my word for this. You can see Ulmer for yourself wearing yet another hat - member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling - when she spoke in the Capitol today at lunch.  




*Photo Details:  From right to left - Sen. Linda Menard, UAS Chancellor John Pugh, UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer, UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers, incoming UAA Chancellor Tom Case, Rep. David Guttenberg, and Rep Sharon Cissna

(OK, I had a couple of pictures.  One close and one with more people in it.  The close one wasn't as clearly focused as this one.  So, instead of having two of the same picture, I opted to cut most of the others out so you could see the four chancellors up close.  But, it turned out that Sharon Cissna was on the edge of this.  Since I've done several posts on her this week already, I didn't think I needed her in this one as well.  But cutting her out would have cropped the picture too closely.  Now that I've said all this, I guess I should show you what the original picture looked like before I cropped it.

The extra people on the left (excluding the photographer) are Sen. Joe Thomas and  Rep. Bill Stoltz and on the right side (l-r) Reps. Pete Petersen, Tammie Wilson, Anna Fairclough, and Sen. Johnny Ellis.)