Why I Don't Travel

It's Thanksgiving weekend and I have many things to be thankful for. Millions of Americans will be traveling to visit families on this holiday. They have to travel to be with family because we have become such a mobile, fragmented, and divorced society.

I don't travel anymore, especially on airlines. There are many reasons for this but the main reason is when I travel on an airline I feel like I have no rights. When I step on an airport I am stepping on government property and I seem to lose some of my rights guaranteed in the constitution specifically Amendments II and IV. The minute I step on the airport the cacophony of commands coming from the government public address systems never stop.

Later when I board the airline's airplane I feel like I am a prisoner of the airline employees, and the public address commands continue; turn that off, get that seat back upright, etc. If I refuse to follow orders from the in-flight prison guards I will be charged with violating a federal law, interfering with the duties of a crewmember, even though what the crewmember told me to do has nothing to do with crewmembers' duties.

Most people go along with the prison system because it makes them feel safe. Safety is the next strongest need of humans after food and other biological needs are met.

We live in an overregulated society. As late as 1950 in many parts of the country one could build a house without paying a commission and getting approval from the government mafia. Now, even putting in a handrail on your front steps requires approval of the government mob in most cities.

In 1948 I lived on a farm with an outhouse. There were no codes and no code enforcers around. As a 15 year old I carried a pocket knife to school. I drove around in my Dad's pickup with my shotgun beside me.

In 1950 there was no EPA. There was no Civil Rights Commission. There was no department of; Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and the most odious of all departments, Homeland Security.

We have become what all tribes become, centrally controlled by the tribal chiefs, priests, and warrior class. Some day a child will be born who will ask, Mom what was freedom in the United States like?

Charles Tolleson