An Avalanche of Support For Tami Holland's Resistance   To Airport Security "Police State" Tactics

If you want to help us end these  un-American, intrusive personal search activities, then stand up for your constitutional rights and civil liberties next time you fly and support FEE's educational activities promoting limited government, personal liberty and free-markets.

Read a few excerpts from the hundreds e-mails we have received below. BTW, we did get two negative e-mails, both from government bureaucrats.  A big thank you to Lew at LewRockwell.com for running the column.

 
Ron, Your wife is a hero! Rob Moody www.strike-the-root.com

Tami, you're my hero!!! I'm really proud of you and I'm going to nominate you for the Airport Terrorist Hall of Fame, whose only other member is Doug Casey who has spent his life terrorizing airline agents and immigration and customs officers. Bob K

It is certainly high time that people started standing up to the completely useless drones which the feds pass off as "airport security". Tami has my admiration and congratulations for her strength of character. It took courage for her to defy the power-hungry "guard" on both occasions. You said it right in the last line of your article, "America needs more Tamis". Rex

Great piece on LRC. These airport security people are farcical. Since being accused of "discrimination" is apparently a worse fate than having a terrorist attack occur, we get harassment of people like Tami. I myself am of somewhat darker complexion because of my Armenian background. I have no Arab blood at all, but given my appearance I would understand completely if an airline wanted to search me. Too bad sensible people are in such short supply. Tom

Dear Ron, ...  just sent me your article about Tami's terror at the AVL airport---she is SOOOO right! There are MANY flaws with airport security---and the staff is the number one problem. Thanks for a good read! I like your website! Best regards to you and Tami!.   a flight attendant

Ron, OK, now you've done it. You've informed every would-be terrorist that the thing to do is to smuggle razor blades in their bras. Now the geniuses at airport security will be forcing every single woman to either flash or be felt up. I You have achieved the Tami-ization of airport security. Congratulations!  Tom D.

please tell Tami she's a genius! (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/holland5.html) Her Flash for Freedom might just give women something they can do to end this Airport Insecurity nonsense. We need more women to wear underwired bras and flash them when the zookeepers' wands go off. Given John Ashcroft's known dislike of nudity, that will go a long way to help. It's something women of all ages can do for their country. It could be the Alices' Restaurant of the Oughts! And if that doesn't work, we can talk to the cross-dressing community!
 
I read your article about your wife. I'm a Veteran, and if anyone tries to make me look like a fool, I'll knock the cr-p out of them. This is turning into a very sick country, I am very sad to say. The real terrorists are right in our midst, who when given 'power' over others, use that power to its extremes. The barbarians ARE inside the gates! Thanks for a real story. America is going to hell in a handbasket! God bless, and tell your wife I, for one appreciate her stand for personal freedom. That airline security witch would make a wonderful prison guard. Fits all the necessary requirements of a mentally unbalanced nutball, to say the least. Oh, the lust for power..................Bill
 
Ron, Read your article "Tami the Terrorist". I have compared the two pictures and decided I would rather be terrorized by
the one on the left. Dammit, Ya just gotta love that girl!

Three cheers for Tami. With both the government imposed indignity of being a passenger, as you have partially described and the extra taxes to pay for same, some people are choosing not to fly. This is hurtful to the industry and a good reason to
avoid airline stocks. Fane

 
I just got done reading your article about airport security. It really pis-ed me off. I have virtually stopped flying because of the
bull-s--t. I hope it is OK to pass your piece around to my friends. You make some points that need to be repeated. Tell Tami that if ever I witness a similar harassing act done to a nice and normal person I will leave my place in line and stand with the person being harassed. And being the anarchist biker that I am will probably get the boot because I can't keep my mouth shut. OK, that's it. Keep up the good work. dave North Pole, Alaska (A biker on Tami's side)

How bloody awful. Read your piece, obviously. Tami's Flash For Freedom is brilliant. I was wanded too but by a man. Does he have a reason to wand me b/c I look dark and could pass as a Middle Easter female bomber_ Ilana  www.ilanamercer.com

great great article today. Best regards to your wife too. Alberto in Italy

I read your article on LewRockwell.com, "Meet My Wife Tami -- 'A Domestic Terrorist,' with great interest, as well as recognition.
Back in February, a friend of ours visiting from Portland, Oregon underwent a similar "threatening grope" search at the San Jose airport. That particular incident brought into focus, for me anyway, how our civil rights have been suspended and destroyed in the name of saving them.b Bcca

I am proud to call you and your wife fellow Americans. I was an Air Force Special Operations Pilot and USAir pilot who will NEVER take another airline job! One of our pilots was arrested as he was going to fly (he was in uniform) because he made the truthful statement-"Why are you taking my nail clippers-I have control of the jet in my hands_". This is nothing but a factual statement designed to expose these morons. What a shame to see such a useful industry go down the tubes. By the way, the Air Force in its regulations says to use whatever force is necessary, to include the prudent use of weapons, to defeat hijackers. It's good enough for government aircraft but not for you.
Keep up the fight,  Cranmer

Dear Mr. Holland: Thank you. Somebody needed to say it. And thank you to your wife, because somebody needed to take the lead and do it. Now, HOW does one take back their freedom_ The sheeple will not stand by you until it's inconvenient for them, too, so whatever one does, it's got to be good so it can appeal to the masses who've been brainwashed that it's ok to think for themselves and take action when violated. Eventually your wife will be arrested by that same female guard if she's allowed to stay employed. Been there and done it alone. Bullies are everywhere, but mostly where they feed off the govt. (called embezzling). PLEASE, the Libertarians need to EDUCATE us on what we CAN do and HOW to do it. Otherwise, we end up being a lonely voice silenced by the bureaucrats,. Thank you again, both of you. Educate us, please.

Dear Ron, Thanks for your exposé and for your willingness to speak out about this important issue. I also admire Tami's gumption under very intimidating circumstances. Regards, Conrad

I really enjoyed your article about your wife Tami and fascist security guards. This has got to stop. I have pledged never to fly a commercial airline again until Islamists terrorist profiling is put in place. If only 20-30% of the nation would do this, the airline industry would collapse, or else get ethnic profiling up and operational.  , Dr. Irvin, ID

 Feb column, but having witnessed similar incidents in Canada, I have a partial theory, politically incorrect it may be. Canada

the fact that most of the "sheeple" will tolerate this kind of abuse shows how far this nation has crumbled. no doubt the "war on terror" will be as successful as the "war on drugs!" I simply stopped flying...at all....I wish everyone would, or just refuse to put up with these illegal and unConstitutional searches....but they won't, because the general public in this country is totally worthless...most of them deserve exactly what they are getting. Budnick Jacksonville FL

Another thought - intimidation is the key to ruthless authoritative measures, the thing that the minions of the Federal government do best. dave

 Hi Ron,
I read your outrage over your wife's problems traveling by air, I just wanted to add my story for your amusement. I am a forty five year old Scots, Irish, German, Dutch and Jew, I retired after twenty from the Marines, and I had to travel to the People's Republic of California to give my sister some assistance, I hadn't flown since before 9/11 so I knew I was in for a treat, but I had to go so I tried to take such steps as would make it less intrusive, all to no avail. I usually carry about four pounds of metal junk in my pockets, a wrench, screwdrivers, knife keys and so forth, my pockets usually resemble a fourteen year olds, but I put all that junk in my suitcase and went forward. I was going out to help my sister separate from a violent man so I took a pistol with me, not a problem, done it many times, all you have to do is declare it and you're legal, right_ Well, I declared it much to the horror of the passengers behind me who didn't know or understand, but the clerk was fine with it and inserted the required note and said since I already had my bag open, he would search it and chalk one up for his percentage of baggage searched. On the bureaucratic level this made sense, but if the real purpose of searches were actually for protection then searching an already open bag was ridiculous, but I gave in for time's sake, and went on. At the security gate I took my dog tags off, put my money clip and pill bottle in the plastic basket and watched my bag go through the x-ray machine. As I stepped through the metal detector it of course beeped many times so I got the wand, but not until after I had taken off my boots to have them molested by some hair brained jerk, then they searched my hat. You might think this normal, but it was an ordinary baseball cap except it has a small, less than half a square inch, clhtml in the back, it took five minutes to search it. Of course it was the steel arch supports that set of their machine, but their search looked like they thought their machine was set to detect explosives hidden in clothes. Then they do the full body search with all the personal grabbing and squeezing to ensure they are body parts being felt, not a big problem, I've been searched before, and none of it was as obtrusive as the searches I went through when they were trying to find my appendix to see if it was killing me. All of this taken in stride, it was why I had dreaded flying and only did so with great reluctance, but I handled it fine, but since they were searching me they decided to do a dig through it completely search of my bag full of CD's and a couple of books for the flight, apparently they didn't recognize all the stuff in there from their video screen, in the mean time the line has grown to huge proportions and people are starting to get testy, so the security guard grudgingly accepts that I am not a terrorist and lets me go. Fine I think, now I can board, but wrong, there is a security guard just about twenty five yards up the ramp and he wants to search me as well. This might make sense except he has had nothing to do for the past ten minutes because all of the personnel at the previous post had been busy searching me so no one got through to him in the mean time. I told him he was wasting my time, confronted him with his watching my previous search, and he got testy and threatening finally falling back on the old "don't get mad at me, I'm just doing my job" and continued. I guess I look like something dangerous because I got almost the exact same treatment on the return trip, next time out to the People's Republic I will be in a truck, the bumper will have all kinds of redneck stickers on it and I will not check my baggage. As an aside, a member of the National Guard looked on to all of what I went through with a bored look on his face, his M-16 at sling arms and I'd bet my last dollar the magazine in his weapon was empty. Might as well give him a night stick, at least that doesn't have pretensions.
Semper Fi, J McClain

 
My wife threatened one guard at the Ft Lauderdale airport with sexual harassment and sexual assault. He looked like he swallowed a brick and let her go on. The unattended bag thing is ridiculous my bags got stuck in the x-ray unit when the idiots were wanding my shoes. I tired to go back and get my laptop, wallet, car keys etc but they would not let me even turn around. At the ticket counter they asked me if my bags were out of my control. I said yes, and told her what happened. She refused to give me a boarding pass until I answered no. I said "no" and got my boarding pass. I felt so much safer.  Paulsen

Just read your article on LRC. I think Tami handled herself wonderfully. If I had been in her shoes, especially the second time, I
would have gone "total redneck" and let someone have it, especially if they got in my face. I'm the kind of guy who tries to be nice, but once the line is crossed, I lose it and no thinking is applied, just start kicking a--. Jeff, TX

Tami is a smart, brave woman! Please thank her for me. I think that the real purpose of passenger harassment at airports is to
desensitize Americans to abuse federal employees. Shelley

My favorite bumper sticker: There's No Government Like No Government. Enjoyed the column. Give ami my best and tell her to keep fighting. Fred  New Orleans

 Greetings Ron, I read with amused interest your recent article on Tami's civil disobedience at the airport. You're absolutely right. It's time to pass from complaint to action. If we don't defend ourselves we deserve the service we get. Thanks for the good article.
Jim

We also have experienced the rudeness and power trip of the security at airports. 'we took a trip from Tampa to Chicago to Milwaukee; then, on return, from Milwaukee to Detroit to Tampa for a wedding in Chicago area. At Tampa, a power hungry security person pulled my husband and me out of line to check us. My husband was unaware of the procedure as he hadn't flown recently --I had been through seeing others pulled out on trips in Jan,Feb of this year. He about lost it. I had to calm him down... after checking us out, They "Had to" open a package I had wrapped for my brother (a paperweight) and tore it up. It had already been scanned... In Chicago, we met the most obnoxious security lady I have ever seen. I was pulled out and my husband wanted to wait for me. She said,"get on the plane." My husband said,"No. I'm waiting for my wife."--we were the last to board, the plane was already 20min. late. He did not want to leave me there alone, having read articles about the "searches." She said,"I told you to get on the plane." He refused. She said,"Come over here, you are to be searched. You must have something in your bag." I told her that she was not random searching.. and why did he need to be searched.. She became more loud and excited. "You are going to be put on the security list," she said. Finally, she yelled, when my husband protested stating that he "had rights according to the Constitution of the U.S.A."--"You are not getting on that plane!" However, he said, "I will and you can't stop me... she said, "I have the power to do that if I want!" The other security person was standing by and seemed embarrassed. She said --Get on the plane right away. We did. Now, that is not all---- On on trip home, guess what_ MY husband was pulled out of line again to be searched. They were very polite. They were loaded with security people. They did the search saying they had to do it and that we may go in line ahead of those boarding. We will not fly soon again... What an experience. Donna & Bill Owen, Largo, FL

Ron, You neglect all of the possibilities. First, Tami is a free market advocate, which MUST mean that she is anti-government and is ready to blow up the federal building in Asheville. ...Anyway, a wonder piece of work and I hope you guys can keep up the resistance to evil. Bill

Way to go, Tami!!! Nelson