Color me paranoiac, if you will, but I'm convinced the current media panic-fest over airport security is politically-driven. Americans are being whipped up into yet another absurd frenzy over an issue that, in view of the problems we face, strikes me as entirely trivial and peripheral. Given the history of shoe- and underwear-bombers and the highly publicized intentions of Al Qaeda to personalize their attack strategy, it seems to me reasonable to respond in kind. Unhappily, the situation in which we live requires constant vigilance. If that means a full body scan in the interests of preventing potential bombers from boarding commercial aircraft and, in some cases, pat-downs, so be it. I am less concerned with the sanctity of my private parts than I am with getting to my destination with safety.
The fact that this has been a major 24-hour news story for several days plays on our inability, as a nation, to make discriminating choices. It seems, on the one hand, that we are unable to tolerate the least insecurity in any aspect of our lives; we demand protection from the slightest threat. And that, on the other, we scream bloody murder if we are asked to make the smallest sacrifice to ensure the security we crave. Despite indisputable and centuries-old evidence that we are, and will remain vulnerable creatures, no matter what we do to protect ourselves, we act in the expectation that in our case it will be different.
I wonder, too, about the dread fear of being touched. It's obviously not something that I crave, from strangers, but the security pat-down -- and I myself have been subjected to this treatment, and survive to tell the tale -- is sexual only in the imagination of those who fear it so. To have the fleeting, professional, impersonal, and hopefully skillful touch of searching hands is surely no worse than a visit to the doctor's -- and could prove as life-saving to oneself and one's fellow travelers. I understand that there are those who have more reason than I to object viscerally to this kind of invasion--I think of rape victims, for example, or of people of color who associate it with the too-familiar humiliation of encounters with authority. I sympathize with them. Still, we are dealing with something broader and more potentially life-threatening than personal dignity or phobias.
So who, I ask myself, stands to gain from inflating this issue into something far greater than it ought to be? Politicians, that's who. They are grateful for any distraction from their own costly and disastrous failures. Those on the right -- this is my unhappy belief -- will exploit the slightest opportunity to foment discontent and rage against officialdom. It is to the advantage of some politicians, then, and of those who use them to further their financial interests; those, I mean, who can afford to buy politicians to do their bidding. And, sorry, yes, the media, too, who have a vested interest in controversial or sensational fodder for their news cycles, and who also have their bottom line of corporate profit to ensure. Those who stand to gain the least from the furor -- or lose -- are the airline patrons, who will find themselves standing in longer lines behind noisier and more quarrelsome fellow-travelers, whose objections to routine security will be validated by the current frenzy.
So yes, pat me down. Please. Scan me, by all means. And move me on with the assurance of safety toward the gate.
Prior attempts to profile were ridiculous, since anyone with a foreign-sounding name, who resembled being Middle Eastern was selected for "random" screening. About 1/5 of the world's population is Muslim, and less than 1/4 of all Muslims are Arabs, rendering that "tool" useless.
While air travelers must subject themselves to ridiculous scrutiny, cargo on planes, ships or trucks entering the US is not scanned, inspected. Our borders (Canada & Mexico) and seaports are porous and unguarded. Our nuclear facilities, power plants, water-food supplies are vulnerable and virtually unattended (in terms of security).
Look at who's guarding our airports and public places. Private contractors use minimum-wage, uneducated, unskilled and often untrained workers. So too, these scanners and other measures designed to give the illusion of safety, rather than actual security, are a boom for surveillance-defense-military contractors, when a well-trained bomb or drug sniffing dog can do just the same for far less cost, invasion of privacy and violation of civil-legal and Constitutional rights.
How about something a little more thoughtful like http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/jeffrey-rosen-tsa-pat-down-unconstitutional_n_788880.html
or http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-kall/tsa-as-metaphor_b_788715.html
I doubt that he would find it trivial.
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/2010/11/23/tsa_airport_security/index.html
The scanners if they were 100% effective MIGHT be worthwhile but that has yet to be shown by TSA to be true. So we the taxpayers are forking out millions to few companies for 1st generation technology whose effectiveness at catching the ONE type of terrorist tactic is suspect at best while be a potential suspect until scanned everytime we buy an airline ticket.
I say the one type of terrorist because this technology can only stop on type of tactic which is taking down planes when many other tactics are available to cause financial, economic and personal terror such as driving a car loaded with explosives into a crowd during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/27/mohamed-osman-mohamud-portland-car-bomb_n_788695.html
After disgorging my knapsack with laptop, cameras and prescription meds, I was pulled aside for further investigation.
Why were there so many drugs- "I am a cancer survivor with hypertension, this isn't helping".
Open the computer and start it up - "O.K."
Why does it have an aluminum case? "It's an Apple."
Your toiletries are in the wrong sized plastic bag. "O.K."
What is this syringe for? "Cleaning my ears".
Put your arms out and spread your legs. "O.K".
Twenty minutes later as they have announced boarding will start, I'm pulled aside again and asked about the contents of my carry-on, in particular, my sailing foul weather gear. "I have been in Portugal to sail back to England. This gear is mine and it fits".
Put your arms out and spread your legs. "O.K".
As I presented my boarding pass 15 minutes later, a symbol was drawn on the pass and as I walked down the jetway and showed the pass, I was told I had been selected for an exam and was pulled aside for a third time.
Spread your arms and your legs. "O.K".
Being 64 and suffering from junk NO ONE wants to touch anymore, the least they could do is provide a bunch of hotties to feel me up! But, three times in less than an hour was a bit much.
And if YOU feel so unsafe on an airplane that you wish THE REST OF US to submit to a frisk every time we board a plane, I suggest that YOU take a train/car/walk, because the rest of us aren't so scared and only want someone grabbing our goods for pay after that's been negotiated up front. *wink*wink*
You don't speak for me and the rest of the sane people in this country.
If the body scanners were considered unsafe for the Pilot Association, then they are unsafe for me too.
You are sheep, following orders of your masters. say "bahhhhhhhhhhhhh"