Thursday, August 11, 2011

Am I a Terrorist?

Finally the day came to go to Gemany. (sorry I have been in Germany for three days but with jet lag and much happening I have yet to blog, so I am writting in the past). My plane was to leave at 12:05, so I had a nice morning before heading to the airport. Kathy and I arrived to find that our flight had been changed because, as is typical, US Airways was running behind and we were going to miss our second plane in Philly. The wonderful news was that we were going to be traveling aboard a  Lufthansa, a German airline that is known for hospitality. It is also much more expensive, especially with the Euro at the current exchange rate. Kathy had told me all about it so I was very excited. Everything went very smoothly with our first flight; we arrived in Denver, CO and had a two hour lay over. Then national security kicked in. First they had to scan my laptop three seperate times to make sure it was safe. Luckily,  I passed that tested. Then as I was walking down the long hall that takes you to the plane's entranced, I was stoped by an officer. At first I thought this was protocol. The officer seemed very kind our conversation went like this:
Emilee (Me): walking down the terminal, so excited)
Officer: (happy, although big and buff) Can I see your passport?
Emilee: Oh sure (whips out passport)
Officer: How are you?
Emilee: Good
Officer: So where are you going?
(I was a little confused because I thought he knew that everyone on the plane was heading to Frankfurt. Then all of the sudden his tone got very serious. Here I thought we were just making small talk. He was thumbing through my passport real quick and then he would check the other passengers. Oh no, I was wrong.)
Officer: (very sharp and forceful) How long are you going to be gone? Why are you going? Are you going anywhere else?
I answered all of this questions very timidly. I was so thrown back. Apparently, as I later learned, this was not protocol. I guess I looked like some sort of terrorist or threat or something. This officer just picked me out of all the passengers as a deadly weapon. I kind of feel the urge to go and ask him why, but I'm sure I won't see him again. Anyways that was on my mind during part of the flight, but I did make it to Germany. The funny part was, just as I had convinced myself that I infact did not look like a national security threat and that I was probably just the one passenger that the officer had to check to make it seem like he wasn't racially profiling, just as I was convinced I get tomy German home to find that my suitcase had been part of the "random" screening process where your case is opened and gone through. So I just wanted to publicly declared to everone especialy any future TSA or National Security Officers that I may run into again that NO, NO I am NOT a terrorist!

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