Well, I must say, the end of my über-traveling era, and my departure from the USA, couldn't have come at a better time.
There have been a lot of changes since I moved to New York City in 1999. Civil liberties have been eroded by the Patriot Act. There are SWAT cops with assault rifles and attack-dogs posted on Wall Street. An airport-style security-screening is now mandatory before visiting the UN or (ironically) the Statue of Liberty. Armed soldiers roam Grand Central station. The TSA has taken on thousands of additional employees, often poorly educated and trained and prone to making up their own interpretation of the rules, and dumped hugely restrictive, expensive and time-consuming edicts onto an already overburdened airline sector and it's long-suffering customers. Thousands have been held on foreign soil for years, without the right to a trial or the right of any appeal, and subjected to physical and psychological torture in the name of "freedom". And the majority of the American public have swallowed it all hook, line and sinker, berated into submission by cough-mongers like Fox News, convinced that anyone who questions any of it is "un-American" and therefore on the side of the 'enemy', whomever that may be.
What's the bottom-line of all these restraints, hindrances and knee-jerk reactions? FEAR. And every time a new limitation is set, the terrorists win again, even if they don't cause a single fatality. The fear clogs up the wheels of commerce, stifles public debate, and makes a joke of the American love of "freedom". They aren't free, they're all terrified, all the time. The terrorists have already won. I'm thrilled to be leaving them to it and return journeys will, mercifully, be brief.
