LETTER: Big government, less freedom?

For those of you who admire Bernie Sanders and embrace greater government control of your life, consider an incident which befell my wife at Glacier Park International Airport this past week.

After arising at 3:30 a.m. to make the 5:45 a.m. flight to Seattle, my wife and I arrived at Glacier Park International absent her purse which contained her photo ID. We both have obtained “Global Entry Security” status so that we are in the government system for “PreCheck.”

One hour before the flight was to take off, the Transportation Security Administration escorted her to an “interview” in the main lobby to ensure she was who she said she was. I vouched for her with my ID and her boarding pass, she had various papers on her showing her name, her luggage bore her name, and she did not bear the burden of looking like a terrorist.

Notwithstanding the above, she was made to sit in a chair while the TSA man called someone who failed to answer the phone. Three questions were all that she was asked, but they managed to hold her for more than 45 minutes to ask the three questions, which required one-sentence answers. They then followed with a thorough body search and scoured her luggage for another 15 minutes so that there was absolutely no chance she could make our flight.

Good-bye flight, good-bye connecting flight, and aren’t we lucky to be cared for in such a caring efficient manner! Yes, I can’t wait for more and bigger government control of our lives.

—Nick Chickering, Whitefish