Tom & Ray, also known as Click & Clack the Tappet brothers, have a weekly NPR radio show where they discuss cars, car repair, a weekly puzzler, and anything that amuses them or is worth their listeners time.

In this week's show, (Tom or Ray, I have a limited ability to discern who is who - I'll just use "he") he reveals in a moment of candid reflection that he refuses to fly because of the TSA. Tom & Ray already have proven to be sensible with their advice and again prove, at least for me, their sensible attitudes towards liberty and privacy.

So support Car Talk, as one of the (if not the only) few NPR personalities to have publicly stand up to the TSA.

Word of the dropped charges came to me via email announcement from a local civil rights organization.

The activist (also known as a normal citizen who doesn't want to be pushed around by TSA bullies, and in this case overbearing heavy handed LEOs who should know better) was filming the TSA Checkpoint from the publicly accessible side, which is allowed, even according to the TSA's own policies.  Naturally the TSA goons don't like being filmed and they called in the Police who continued the heavy handed response.

One important thing to note is that the incident is from 2009, while the court case was heard and settled in the past year.  Hopefully this isn't just a case of good timing for the defense, but rather a citizenry that is waking up and realizing that they don't have to put up with this slide toward totalitarianism.

Thankfully a jury found the citizen not guilty.  One can hope that the citizen will now file a Federal suit for unlawful infringement of civil liberties against the TSA employees and the police officers who backed up and gave literal force to this abuse of power.

We are in the final hours before leaving on the train.  We will for the most part be able to take everything from the car trip portion with us on the train, with the exceptions of a few unnecessary or bulky items.  Fortunately for those not aware, trains are amazingly roomy and each passenger can take 2 checked bags, a personal item (laptop / purse) AND three checked bags.  The checked baggage dimensions are pretty huge, and the carry one baggage dimensions are, I think, pretty standard and compatible with airplane dimensions.

The space and freedom available on a train are the primary selling points of train travel.  You have many cars you can walk up and down; Lounge cars / restaurant cars, observatory cars, and sleeping cars. Now the luxury of trains can be over-hyped, and is by no means the same as train travel in its hey day.

For a family traveling across the country with diaper bags, suitcases, spare food for both a baby and an allergy avoiding adult, the extra space available on Amtrak can not be emphasized enough. Don't believe me?  Call them up your self.  Ask for Debbie.  She did a fantastic job on my 81 minute call to book my tickets.  I'll have more information about my call with Amtrak customer service and my discussion with the call center manager coming up soon.

TWD Blog #1
What is TWD?

What is TWD (Travel With Dignity).  Travel with dignity is my ode to the America of the not too distant past.  To a time when the American public was made of citizens and not suspects. TWD is in a way a memorial service and a celebration. 

Many citizens morn the passing of the time when the public was innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, judged by a jury of their peers. We stand around the battered body of our once free nation, asking each other "How did this happen? How did we not see this coming?" Our government, and many of our neighbors, believe that in order to travel this nation, we must give up the rights we always had, that were promised to be held for us by our government. I say no, and so do many others who believe we are not guilty until proven innocent. That we do retain our rights and that we have not surrendered our dignity.

At the same time that we morn the passing of our rights and liberties, TWD is here to declare that this is also a time for celebration. At no other time in our nations history, and likely in no time in our future, will the people on this earth have the resources and the remaining freedom to be able to travel with as may options as we now have.

The alternatives to air travel may not be as convenient, and may not be as cheep, but for the time being we do have many alternatives,. A growing group of people like myself, like James Bab and John Tyner, are stepping up to help others find those alternatives and demonstrate that we do not have to submit to an encroaching government’s demands to give up our rights. To take off our shoes.  To remove our belts, and all but bend over, turn our head, and cough.

TWD is here to demonstrate first hand that travel with out the TSA is possible, even for a family with infant children and that it is a better option.

TWD started, as many things do these days, with several friends talking about how we didn’t like where we saw our nation heading.  We shared many long back and forth discussions and being a technologically minded group, our efforts naturally turned to how we could use our experience to help show others what is possible and why change is necessary.

There are few better ways to teach, than to lead by example, so when an emergency trip across the nation was needed, and after having participated in several of the Opt Out day discussions and activities, I decided to take the plunge and Opt Out For Good. My small family of 3 is heading 2500 miles (1 way) across this nation to visit relatives, and at every step of the way, we will be safe, secure, and free of interference by the TSA.

This freedom to travel might to exist for long.  Some see a time when even the freedom to travel by personal vehicle will be curtailed, monitored, and "secured" by paranoid and power hungry agencies.

To help demonstrate that you can Travel With Dignity, my family will make a cross country trip that takes 3x as long, and costs only a few hundred more dollars.  But we gain freedom, a lot more packing space, and we keep out dignity intact.

Follow along as I help explain how this trip is possible and what you can expect if you want to Travel With Dignity.