Ok, my first post on Security Theater. This story is of Ramak Fazel via the New York Times. Ramak is an American citizen who decided to visit all the state capitals and use stamps he collected as a child to send postcards from each of them to memorialize the trip.

Unfortunately, Mr. Fazel has a Iranian name (he came to the US when he was 2 months old) and told his plan to a woman on a plane during his trip. This woman apparently thought it was strange a 42 year old man with a foreign sounding name would actually be interested in visiting the state capitals for fun and reported him to authorities which eventually led him to be interrogated, read his Miranda rights and placed on a list which has created problems for him during his travels to Poland and an attempted trip to India (his visa was denied).

The journey ultimately left him wondering what it means to be American — and, more fundamentally, who he really was.

“What I thought would be an exercise in self-betterment turned out to be something a little bigger,” he said dryly.