Held Hostage By Homeland Security In Boston:
We were thinking of disembarking in Boston this morning. It’s a good thing we didn’t try. All shore excursions were held up. Homeland Security made sure they looked at everybody’s passport and room card first. In addition they were supposed to give you a blue “immigration card” so you would be allowed to step off the ship. I’m a US citizen. Aren’t I allowed to step off the ship in America? And I’m supposed to go through customs when I disembark in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Why the duplication of effort?
At one point the line was stretching from the Britannia Restaurant on deck 3 all the way around the grand lobby and back to the elevators on the other side of the ship! There was a two-hour queue. The captain came over the loud speaker telling passengers to get out of line and have some breakfast. Try again later. Finally about 11PM the bridge informed us that the queue had shortened. We should get back in line again.
US citizens were ushered through the line which now extended into the Queen’s Room behind the Britannia Restaurant. Non-citizens were kept in a group standing on the sidelines. What were they going to do with them? Interrogate them? I hate to think. They looked like mostly Brits who just had to stand there until all the Americans had been processed through.
We thought we’d left Homeland Security behind at the border check points in the Southwest. Now here they are again in Boston Harbor. Where are they going to appear next? In the harbor at Haifax? In Southampton? Hamburg? They are “in your face” all too much and ought to disappear and be reorganized. In the age of terrorism constantly picking on travelers isn’t going to do you much good. They might convince most non-traveling citizens that they are doing a lot of good, which leads to the political nature of Homeland Security. But if they want to stop terrorism they ought to chase the international pirates to where they come from and stop them at their source — which isn’t Boston Harbor.
Tip for Homeland Security: When Pompey wanted to clean up the pirates, he didn’t attack Rome.
We were thinking of disembarking in Boston this morning. It’s a good thing we didn’t try. All shore excursions were held up. Homeland Security made sure they looked at everybody’s passport and room card first. In addition they were supposed to give you a blue “immigration card” so you would be allowed to step off the ship. I’m a US citizen. Aren’t I allowed to step off the ship in America? And I’m supposed to go through customs when I disembark in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Why the duplication of effort?
At one point the line was stretching from the Britannia Restaurant on deck 3 all the way around the grand lobby and back to the elevators on the other side of the ship! There was a two-hour queue. The captain came over the loud speaker telling passengers to get out of line and have some breakfast. Try again later. Finally about 11PM the bridge informed us that the queue had shortened. We should get back in line again.
US citizens were ushered through the line which now extended into the Queen’s Room behind the Britannia Restaurant. Non-citizens were kept in a group standing on the sidelines. What were they going to do with them? Interrogate them? I hate to think. They looked like mostly Brits who just had to stand there until all the Americans had been processed through.
We thought we’d left Homeland Security behind at the border check points in the Southwest. Now here they are again in Boston Harbor. Where are they going to appear next? In the harbor at Haifax? In Southampton? Hamburg? They are “in your face” all too much and ought to disappear and be reorganized. In the age of terrorism constantly picking on travelers isn’t going to do you much good. They might convince most non-traveling citizens that they are doing a lot of good, which leads to the political nature of Homeland Security. But if they want to stop terrorism they ought to chase the international pirates to where they come from and stop them at their source — which isn’t Boston Harbor.
Tip for Homeland Security: When Pompey wanted to clean up the pirates, he didn’t attack Rome.
