David Nelsons want off the list
I could understand having problems if your name was Abdul, or Yousef, or Osama- but David Nelson? What, was the 21st 9.11 hijacker someone named David Nelson, or is this just yet another example of our national paranoia being played out in our airport security checkpoints?
Throughout Southern California and across the country, men named David Nelson report they have been harassed, questioned by FBI agents, pulled off airplanes, searched and then searched again when attempting air travel.
Apparently caught up in a nationwide dragnet for a terrorist by that name, David Nelsons everywhere are being told their names raise red flags on airline screening software. The government, however, maintains that the problem is essentially a computer glitch the airlines must solve.
Some David Nelsons in Southern California say they don't care why it's happening. They just want their names off the list.
"It was such a fiasco," David Nelson of Hollywood said recently of his most recent attempt at flying.
The 35-year-old actor said he was headed to Hawaii on vacation and handed his driver's license to a ticket agent at LAX, who blurted, "Oh, boy. Here's another David Nelson."
"She told me, 'There's some terrorist with that name or something. That name brings a red flag."'
Only a few months earlier, Nelson was settling into his seat on a New York-bound airplane when a voice called out, "David Nelson, please exit the plane."
Within moments, FBI agents surrounded him, asked him to remove his shoes and searched his carry-on bags again. He eventually was allowed to reboard. But, he said, "When you get back on the plane, people look at you funny."
So when Nelson was stopped again on his Hawaii-bound flight, he said he felt intensely frustrated. Security guards searched him head to toe at the gate, and then insisted on doing it again before he could board.
That's when Nelson said he turned around, abandoned his vacation, and walked out. He hasn't flown since.
Can you blame him? Or anyone named David Nelson? Surely we can do better than creating a system that exposes anyone bearing a quintessentially American name to overt scrutiny simply because of that name? How many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent men are subjected to being harrassed simply because of their name? Can you imagine the chaos if the name in question was John Smith?
Yes, we need to have an effective security system in place to protect travellers, but the current system is not it. This example may seem funny (unless, of course, your name happens to be David Nelson), but it serves as a sad example of what a ridiculously inept system is currently in place. Of course, if you bad-mouth airport security, that means the terrorists win, right??
