Why I won't be going to the U.S.

I have an invitation to visit friends in the United States this February. It sounds very tempting: trading in the cold and snow of Toronto for the sun and warmth of southern California. I have declined, however. The reason is U.S. “security”.

No, I do not fear a terrorist attack. According to this report I am 225,409 times more likely to die on the road on the way to the airport, and I am not afraid of that, either.

I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars to be treated like a criminal.

I had accepted – reluctantly – taking miniature liquids in a plastic bag, taking my shoes off, walking through a metal detector and having my luggage screened and sometimes searched. The price of flying in the modern world, we tell ourselves.

Now, however, I could not bring my computer, because we are not allowed carry-on bags, and I certainly won’t trust it to the baggage handlers. And I would have to pray they don’t lose my luggage, because I would be left without so much as toothpaste and clean underwear.

If they decide I look suspicious, I get a choice: a virtual strip search or a very invasive pat-down.

Once I am on the plane, I cannot have a blanket if I am cold, and I cannot go to the bathroom if I have a full bladder or an upset stomach in the last hour of the flight.

I am not a terrorist, or a criminal being moved from one prison to another. I am a vacationer paying for this trip.

I have a choice, and I choose not to accept this treatment. If this is what is required to travel to the United States, they will have one less tourist. Maybe they won’t care. Or maybe, if they lose enough of us, they will return to treating travellers like human beings again.