As a physician who does a lot of work in environmental medicine, I thought my first blog would be on the subject of mercury in the environment and its role in our health.
However, after my experience this weekend traveling through the airport on my way to and from Phoenix to give a lecture to physicians, I have decided to write my first blog on this experience.
It seemed funny that I was unable to get my boarding pass online from Southwest Airlines as I normally do. The online message stated that I could only get it at the ticketing/baggage check-in counter. Then, when I got to curbside check-in, they said I had to go inside to the big long ticket line and wait in that to get my boarding pass. Right then I knew something bad was happening. When I finally got to the ticket counter, after an eternal wait in that huge line of passengers buying their tickets rather than just getting boarding passes, I was advised that I had been placed on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) "WATCHLIST".
"What is a watch list?" I asked. They told me that it is a list given to them by the TSA to keep an eye on "suspicious persons." I said I did not know how this could happen and they said that I will be required to wait in this big long line for every flight I take. The woman issuing my boarding pass also indicated to me that her son, age 17, had been on this watch list for four years and nothing she did could get him off the list. I was shocked. I was advised to talk to the TSA representatives at security.
When I spoke with them they said I should download a form from the Internet and fill it out. As soon as I got to my destination I downloaded the "TSA Passenger Identity Verification from (also known as a PIVF). I reviewed this form. They require three certified or notarized documents. There was a list of a half dozen or so qualifying documents from which to select the required three. These included a naturalization certificate, certificate of citizenship, government identity card, passport, and visa. It was clear to me from this form that they are assuming that I am a foreign national who was either visiting or who had moved to America. In point of fact, my family goes back many generations as Americans.
Since returning home from my trip, I have contacted several of my patients in high positions and they are working on removing me from the watch list. In addition, I have contacted my congressman (Representative Henry Waxman), and his office has indicated that they are aggressively pursuing the removal of my name from the watch list. In addition, over thirty years ago I adopted the Sikh way of life and legally changed my name to Soram Khalsa. In talking with leaders within the Sikh faith, I have learned that there has been an entire flotilla of people with the last name of Khalsa (the last name taken by all Americans who adopt the Sikh way of life) whose first name begins with the letter "S" who have been similarly watch-listed.
My question is what is going on in our government? How could I, who have been a physician in private practice for 27 years, a physician who has been appointed by the Governor of California to be a member of the Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine Advisory Council, and who is a professor medicine at a naturopathic medical school (which is where I was going to lecture), be so quickly, easily and thoughtlessly slapped onto a watch list? Then, knowing that many of my friends whose first names begin with S were also on this list was even more disturbing. I envisioned an employee of the TSA – finding somebody who was suspicious with a long first name and the last name of Khalsa - who was just lazy and who said that rather than spelling this person's whole name, we'll just use the letter S. I wonder if that's what really happens? If the TSA is going to be given so much power in our country, they should use this new power with responsibility, intelligence, and integrity . I realized I was being punished by the government without even knowing what I was accused of.
Anyway, I am writing this saga to share it with the world and perhaps to stimulate some conversation about how people are put on the watch list by the TSA, and what they can do to get OFF the list.
It is my fond hope that my next blog will be on the subjects that I originally intended to write on, which are our environment and our health.
http://www.khalsamedical.com