My first direct connection to the travel ban & ramp up of abusive CBP activity.

[Ms. Toad]

I went in for my almost-one-year post-cancer check-up - and everything is backed up so we were waiting for hours (I left my 12:45 PM appointment at 4:45 PM.) So we've got a little impromptu cancer survivor support group while we're waiting for mammograms (and scaring the not-yet-diagnosed with our war stories).

In the middle of chatting about radiation & chemo, and which doctors tolerate uppity patients, the little 80-year-old cute-as-a button grandmother with a double mastectomy volunteered out of the blue that she'd already been stopped an questioned on a domestic flight (not sure whether it was by TSA or CPB).

Her last name happens to be Ukraine. It apparently didn't sound American enough, so they wanted to know what nationality it/she was. That was the sole reason for the heightened scrutiny of this life-long, retired university professor. Fortunately it was a brief encounter - but it is still sobering to have it now be reality - rather than just theory.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Ashamed of the horrible people in the White House doing this, ASHAMED

[Ms. Toad]

2. Yup.

Fortunately, as a well-educated - likely activist - uppity, but very dignified elderly woman, she responded as she needed to to get through with minimal delay. But had she not been any of those things it would likely have turned into something very ugly.

I am amazed at how quickly people (in general) and posses with a veneer of authority (specifically) feel emboldened to bite, now that they perceive their muzzle has been removed.

[Doreen]

3. Is she white?

[Ms. Toad]

4. Yes.

Another likely reason her questioning was brief.

[Doreen]

5. I would not bet anything on that being the reason she got done quickly but I was curious.

I am glad she did not have to put up with it for to long.