Temporarily Postponed
From 1979 onwards, I visited the US a few times every year, travelling by air. After the TSA was instituted, I flew once and decided not to do that again if I could avoid it. Turns out I could. I still visited several times annually but by car. In 2016 I postponed a trip inadvertently scheduled for election week, thinking it might be wiser to be on the road the following spring instead. But then up popped Russiaphobia wherein anyone with even a ridiculously tenuous Russian connection (for example, knowing a Russian person or having the ability to speak the language) is suspect. So, being in that category —which was not a problem in the past, but now? who knows— I put off the trip again, thinking the fear-mongering would run its course by August and all would be well. By August 2017. I laugh when I think of that now. As you may have guessed, I did not visit the US in August.
I’m old enough to have noticed that crossing the border is not what it once was for ordinary people. Causes for concern when travelling to and in the US seem to be on the uptick: the easy invocation of “national security” which in reality means anything goes; the literally unwarranted collect-it-all surveillance state; the increasing tendency toward not only secret use of facial recognition programs but of faulty ones; the militarization of police and other law enforcement agencies; customs and immigration officials demanding access to one’s social media, laptops, phones; the repeal of habeas corpus; Quiet Skies; TSA’s expanding presence not only at airports but on the road, and other non-airport venues; driving with foreign (Canadian) plates; roadside seizure of cash by those modern-day highwaymen, the police; all topped off with the “Russia evil” narrative of the Democrats amplified by the media, and the basic “foreigners not wanted” attitude of the Republicans and their governmental agencies. Hello, tipping point.
The publicly stated purpose of this hyper-vigilance, with attendant troublesome standards of behaviour for its agents, is to protect me from terrorists and other bad stuff which should therefore make me feel safer. If that’s the case then it’s not working as advertised. As much as I have loved travelling in the US and would like to do so again, I have no plans to visit in the foreseeable future. "A smaller world" in this instance is not much to cheer about.
On the bright side: having no plans to cross the border, I feel freer to say these things and to openly support certain ideals without fear of repercussion. Maybe.
I watch the pushback against the ongoing shenanigans with interest. And with hope.