Last August, I took my husband to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda for a chemotherapy treatment. He had warned me of the serious security measures that were in place. He wasn't exaggerating. We each had to show ID, then get out of the car and walk into a building that was equipped with the kind of scanners set up at airports these days. While I ran myself and my purse through the scanners, my car was being checked out for bombs. Having passed inspection, I was given a one-day photo ID and we were sent on to the hospital.
It was a beautiful, warm day, and I decided to explore the area, and walk to downtown Bethesda for lunch. I walked out the other side of the compound (for it truly was a compound), past a manned guard booth, and out the gate. As I so often do, I misjudged distance, and what I thought would be a one-half hour walk turned into over an hour, each way, in the Maryland heat.
So, nearly three hours after I left, I walked through the gate looking like someone who had crossed the desert and was hoping the end was truly in sight and not a mirage. The same gentleman was at the guard post, and he indeed stopped me. Apparently, not too many people walked out the gate, and he remembered me. And yet my one-day pass proved inadequate ID, he also made me show him my driver's license. And then told me I needed to go around to the front of the complex and go through the full security process again....
The look I must have given him seemed to convince him a) that I wasn't much of a threat, and b) had I to walk around to the front I might have ended up being admitted as a patient, bad public relations for NIH if nothing else.
As I pondered this strange experience, and later talked to my husband about it, we wondered if there was some top-secret highly dangerous research going on that would require these extreme measures.
But no.
In Pay Any Price, by James Risen, he talks about what he calls the "war on normalcy" that has been going on since 9/11. It is of course a tremendous boondoggle, costing us billions of dollars, in the name of national security. What all these security corporations have sold to our fear-mongering politicians is the ability to continue to win elections by instilling terror in the populace. And what we have gotten in return is a nation that trembles in its boots, although we have had far fewer terrorist attacks than we had in the 60's and 70's on our soil.
What have we lost? Our airports, once the place for reunions of families and friends, are now war zones. There was once a time when people could walk to the gate to see their loved ones off. Hell, there was once a time when you could bring a bottle of your own water onto a plane. I am told that if you are over 75, you are exempt from taking your shoes off as you go through screening, but that's only until the feared jihadis put a 76-year-old on board.
On December 26, at a wonderful, small local movie theater, I was astounded to learn that they were checking bags. Granted, the woman who was charged with this ridiculous task conducted the most embarrassed and cursory search I've ever undergone. But still.... And then I realized that this was the big, bad opening of The Interview, a totally goofy, mediocre comedy that had recently struck fear into the hearts of Americans, worried that Kim Jong Un's warriors would be storming our theaters.
What else have we lost? In Charleston, when I first moved here, I was enthralled by the First Night festivities. Locals and tourists walking the streets downtown, with what seemed like hundreds of free and inexpensive performances in churches and theaters. My daughter played the fiddle with Na Fidleiri, and we wandered in and out of other performances throughout the night. I thought it just couldn't get any better than this.
Then, after 9/11, First Night disappeared, pretty much without a peep. I have looked it up, yearningly, from time to time, and what it has come down to is a few hours of performances -- "family entertainment" and specifically "non-alcoholic" -- on Marion Square. And lots of advertisements for restaurants. A tragic loss, in the name of protecting us from terrorism.
Seems we have terrorized ourselves these past fourteen years. In the name of security, we have taken away community, and warmth, and freedom to walk the streets, the airports, the theaters of our country.
And, need I add, the real terror really lies in the hypocritical freedom to carry weapons, weapons not to hunt, but to wage war on others in our communities, with no checks or controls. So it hasn't been Al Qaeda that has terrorized our schools and theaters, it has been unbalanced individuals with access to assault weapons. And those fear-mongerers whose purpose is to maintain their power of office refuse to legislate gun control. But are happy to keep us from going about our lives as though life were normal. Our insecurity is what keeps our politicians secure.
Showing posts with label Airport Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Airport Security. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2015
Friday, November 15, 2013
Fear (and Loathing) at the Airport
Sadly, I had to make a trip to the Charleston International Airport yesterday. Sad, because I remember (not all that long ago), when we could walk to the gate to welcome travelers to Charleston, or to kiss them good-by when they leave. I stopped flying when the full-body scanners were installed, and when it was rumored that they had been removed, I found that I was just as happy staying away. I like not having to take my shoes off to get on a train, and I don't have to pay to park my car. Oh, and nobody takes a picture of my license plate as I leave the parking lot.
The Charleston International Airport is a puffed-up name for a very sweet, small airport. But after 9/11, they may as well have named it (and all other airports in the US) the Bin Laden International. He has certainly left a legacy. After 9/11 the searches became more extensive and ridiculous. If you were dropping off a passenger at the curb, you were no longer allowed even five minutes to use the restroom much less help carry bags to the airline check-in. Only passengers are now allowed past the now ubiquitous security check-points. Which over the years have taken up more and more space.
Our security system here in the US may cover a whole lot of space, but the net has awfully big holes. Which is why there have continued to be acts of violence in and around airports, the latest being at LAX on November 1. Crazy killers can still get guns, because nobody knows they're crazy enough to kill until it happens.
But don't get me started on guns. My point is that, since the LAX shooting, the question is not, why do we still make it easy for people to carry guns, but how much more security can we cram into the airports.
Increased airport security appears to be the answer to just about any question you might ask regarding air travel. So since the idiot tried to set off a bomb in his shoes, we have all been forced to take off our shoes before we board an airplane. And when another idiot tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear, the solution was to give the TSA the right to gaze at our naked bodies. And don't forget, you're only allowed to take 3 oz. of liquids, and be sure to leave your water bottle at home.
Do you feel safer now? Because I sure don't -- even though the miniscule Charleston County Airport (please don't make me call it "International"...) is crawling with ever more security. In fact, when I got there yesterday I found that in the past year, the security checkpoint area had quadrupled. There were more security people this afternoon than passengers. People in wheelchairs were made to take off their shoes. And some old folk who could barely lift their arms had to stick them up for the scanners.
I was there to pick up my husband, who required wheelchair assistance. Except that there weren't enough porters to help with the passengers requiring assistance. So eventually the young lady wheeled him to baggage claim and then said she had to leave to go help someone else. Fortunately the two large suitcases for Stephan's three week visit came through before she got away, so we didn't have to wrestle them off the carousel and out to the sidewalk with the wheelchair. She got us out to the sidewalk and ran off for her next handicapped traveler.
When I brought my car around and hesitated, waiting for a spot to open up at the curb I was instantly approached by airport police, whose job it is to protect us from people sitting in their car in front of the airport. When I pointed to the old guy in the wheelchair, he motioned me over to a space and then quickly bicycled off in search of other parking malefactors. And, because there is more airport security than there are skycaps, my 75-year-old husband had to get out of the wheelchair and help me haul the two suitcases into the car.
You know, this is Charleston. If I had needed help on the street someone would have come up and given me a hand. But over at the Charleston County Airport, crawling with people who are employed there, they are too busy looking for trouble that doesn't exist than to actually help out.
What a way to welcome a traveler to Charleston.
Osama bin Laden is grinning in his watery grave.
The Charleston International Airport is a puffed-up name for a very sweet, small airport. But after 9/11, they may as well have named it (and all other airports in the US) the Bin Laden International. He has certainly left a legacy. After 9/11 the searches became more extensive and ridiculous. If you were dropping off a passenger at the curb, you were no longer allowed even five minutes to use the restroom much less help carry bags to the airline check-in. Only passengers are now allowed past the now ubiquitous security check-points. Which over the years have taken up more and more space.
Our security system here in the US may cover a whole lot of space, but the net has awfully big holes. Which is why there have continued to be acts of violence in and around airports, the latest being at LAX on November 1. Crazy killers can still get guns, because nobody knows they're crazy enough to kill until it happens.
But don't get me started on guns. My point is that, since the LAX shooting, the question is not, why do we still make it easy for people to carry guns, but how much more security can we cram into the airports.
Increased airport security appears to be the answer to just about any question you might ask regarding air travel. So since the idiot tried to set off a bomb in his shoes, we have all been forced to take off our shoes before we board an airplane. And when another idiot tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear, the solution was to give the TSA the right to gaze at our naked bodies. And don't forget, you're only allowed to take 3 oz. of liquids, and be sure to leave your water bottle at home.
Do you feel safer now? Because I sure don't -- even though the miniscule Charleston County Airport (please don't make me call it "International"...) is crawling with ever more security. In fact, when I got there yesterday I found that in the past year, the security checkpoint area had quadrupled. There were more security people this afternoon than passengers. People in wheelchairs were made to take off their shoes. And some old folk who could barely lift their arms had to stick them up for the scanners.
I was there to pick up my husband, who required wheelchair assistance. Except that there weren't enough porters to help with the passengers requiring assistance. So eventually the young lady wheeled him to baggage claim and then said she had to leave to go help someone else. Fortunately the two large suitcases for Stephan's three week visit came through before she got away, so we didn't have to wrestle them off the carousel and out to the sidewalk with the wheelchair. She got us out to the sidewalk and ran off for her next handicapped traveler.
When I brought my car around and hesitated, waiting for a spot to open up at the curb I was instantly approached by airport police, whose job it is to protect us from people sitting in their car in front of the airport. When I pointed to the old guy in the wheelchair, he motioned me over to a space and then quickly bicycled off in search of other parking malefactors. And, because there is more airport security than there are skycaps, my 75-year-old husband had to get out of the wheelchair and help me haul the two suitcases into the car.
You know, this is Charleston. If I had needed help on the street someone would have come up and given me a hand. But over at the Charleston County Airport, crawling with people who are employed there, they are too busy looking for trouble that doesn't exist than to actually help out.
What a way to welcome a traveler to Charleston.
Osama bin Laden is grinning in his watery grave.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Keeping Us from Gulping to Death
Big Brother may be late, he's slow but persistent.
Our need to have the government keep us safe began well before the 1980's, but it was in or around that time that our men in blue began, with the blessing of Mothers Against Drunk Driving -- the aptly named "MADD" (and I don't mean angry) -- to hold alcohol check-points. It was infuriating, it was frightening, it was illegal. That is, it was illegal until the courts approved the right to stop and search --our bodies -- for alcohol level, without cause.
It amazes me still that we allowed that to happen. But the alcohol nazis knew that it was easier to get the police out there doing random alcohol tests than to get the police and the courts to do something about people who were actually driving dangerously, and observedly, drunk. All these years later, check points demean but don't prevent drunk driving.
One thing that those searches did accomplish, however, was to open the door to other illegal searches. Next were cameras at intersections, making sure we all stopped at those stop lights, and then on city streets, because they would keep us safe from crime. Like heavy petting in public.
When 9/11 shocked the hell out of the American people, there was nothing they -- the government -- couldn't do enough of to make us feel safe. Search our bags, then our shoes, and eventually, no surprise, when all that wasn't working, our entire bodies. Each time there is a news article on airport security, and some bimbo gets interviewed saying, "I don't care (if they have to search my 2-year-old son or my 80-year-old mother) as long as they keep us safe," I marvel at the stupidity, gullibility, and fearfulness of the American people.
And here we are: in New York, police are free to stop and frisk a person walking down the street, in Arizona, the fact that they say "please" doesn't make it any less horrifying that you must always leave home with papers proving you are a U.S. citizen.
When Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, and a hero of Macbethian proportions, stopped smoking in public places, I approved, only because the smoke one breathes out is the smoke another breathes in. Just as in gun control, if you are walking around with a gun it may be decorative but the only possible use is to shoot it. So why is it that Bloomberg can keep people from smoking but is helpless to change gun laws? A question for another day I'm afraid.
But today it's the War on Obesity that makes me quake with fear of what's in store. The insurance industry has been using the pretense of protecting us from ourselves for some time, and now online, your doctor and the world now knows how many glasses of wine you drink and whether you or any relative is or was diabetic. It is only a bit obnoxious when Michelle Obama, dressed down in designer clothes and fit and muscular, appears in public with just-picked carrots and lettuce, but we are certainly crossing another dangerous line when a law limits the size of a soft drink.
As with drunk driving, it is far easier to make such a law than to educate people as to the hazards of unhealthy eating. As with the TSA "security" checks, making such a law means that other people are taking care of our business.
I don't think this law is likely to last long. After all, if you can limit the size of a soda, you can regulate the amount of alcohol served to a customer in a bar. And regulating business as opposed to an individual is just not done in this country in 2012.
But I have been wrong.
Simple solutions are, like the Big Gulp, the way things are done here. Overweight? Your mayor will make you pay more for the extra sugar. And your insurance company will cash in by charging higher premiums at the scale.
And you can bet that when the story is in the news, some idiot will be interviewed saying, "I'm just glad Mayor Bloomberg is keeping us safe."
Our need to have the government keep us safe began well before the 1980's, but it was in or around that time that our men in blue began, with the blessing of Mothers Against Drunk Driving -- the aptly named "MADD" (and I don't mean angry) -- to hold alcohol check-points. It was infuriating, it was frightening, it was illegal. That is, it was illegal until the courts approved the right to stop and search --our bodies -- for alcohol level, without cause.
It amazes me still that we allowed that to happen. But the alcohol nazis knew that it was easier to get the police out there doing random alcohol tests than to get the police and the courts to do something about people who were actually driving dangerously, and observedly, drunk. All these years later, check points demean but don't prevent drunk driving.
One thing that those searches did accomplish, however, was to open the door to other illegal searches. Next were cameras at intersections, making sure we all stopped at those stop lights, and then on city streets, because they would keep us safe from crime. Like heavy petting in public.
When 9/11 shocked the hell out of the American people, there was nothing they -- the government -- couldn't do enough of to make us feel safe. Search our bags, then our shoes, and eventually, no surprise, when all that wasn't working, our entire bodies. Each time there is a news article on airport security, and some bimbo gets interviewed saying, "I don't care (if they have to search my 2-year-old son or my 80-year-old mother) as long as they keep us safe," I marvel at the stupidity, gullibility, and fearfulness of the American people.
And here we are: in New York, police are free to stop and frisk a person walking down the street, in Arizona, the fact that they say "please" doesn't make it any less horrifying that you must always leave home with papers proving you are a U.S. citizen.
When Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, and a hero of Macbethian proportions, stopped smoking in public places, I approved, only because the smoke one breathes out is the smoke another breathes in. Just as in gun control, if you are walking around with a gun it may be decorative but the only possible use is to shoot it. So why is it that Bloomberg can keep people from smoking but is helpless to change gun laws? A question for another day I'm afraid.
But today it's the War on Obesity that makes me quake with fear of what's in store. The insurance industry has been using the pretense of protecting us from ourselves for some time, and now online, your doctor and the world now knows how many glasses of wine you drink and whether you or any relative is or was diabetic. It is only a bit obnoxious when Michelle Obama, dressed down in designer clothes and fit and muscular, appears in public with just-picked carrots and lettuce, but we are certainly crossing another dangerous line when a law limits the size of a soft drink.
As with drunk driving, it is far easier to make such a law than to educate people as to the hazards of unhealthy eating. As with the TSA "security" checks, making such a law means that other people are taking care of our business.
I don't think this law is likely to last long. After all, if you can limit the size of a soda, you can regulate the amount of alcohol served to a customer in a bar. And regulating business as opposed to an individual is just not done in this country in 2012.
But I have been wrong.
Simple solutions are, like the Big Gulp, the way things are done here. Overweight? Your mayor will make you pay more for the extra sugar. And your insurance company will cash in by charging higher premiums at the scale.
And you can bet that when the story is in the news, some idiot will be interviewed saying, "I'm just glad Mayor Bloomberg is keeping us safe."
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Suspension of Reality
One of the most impressive news items of the day is the buzz about the TSA workers in Florida. Their crime was failing to do the required random screenings of passengers.
I, for one, applaud these brave men and women of the TSA. From my flying experience, I can only assume that shirking their duties resulted in far smoother operations at the Fort Myers Airport.
Isn't it time we started to yell, loudly, and non-stop, about the TSA harassment, done in the name of our very own security?
Because if we do not riot in the streets, this situation will continue to worsen. Our liberties, our personal space, will continue to be assaulted by new weaponry, in the name of security.
But what is being called security is in fact capitalism at its best. It is millions upon millions of dollars in government contracts to private industries, to do research, to create technology, whose sole purpose is to make money for the industry, and whose by-product is the taking away of privacy and dignity.
Safety? Not likely.
So thank you for sacrificing your jobs rather than continue daily to act out the criminal absurdity of the TSA. Please note that no lives were lost in the shirking of responsibility by these former employees at Fort Myers Airport.
I, for one, applaud these brave men and women of the TSA. From my flying experience, I can only assume that shirking their duties resulted in far smoother operations at the Fort Myers Airport.
Isn't it time we started to yell, loudly, and non-stop, about the TSA harassment, done in the name of our very own security?
Because if we do not riot in the streets, this situation will continue to worsen. Our liberties, our personal space, will continue to be assaulted by new weaponry, in the name of security.
But what is being called security is in fact capitalism at its best. It is millions upon millions of dollars in government contracts to private industries, to do research, to create technology, whose sole purpose is to make money for the industry, and whose by-product is the taking away of privacy and dignity.
Safety? Not likely.
So thank you for sacrificing your jobs rather than continue daily to act out the criminal absurdity of the TSA. Please note that no lives were lost in the shirking of responsibility by these former employees at Fort Myers Airport.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Not Just for Rapists Anymore
How about the way the TSA tells you they are hearing your discomfort, and then goes on to explain why it's important that they continue to do exactly what they are doing? Okay, so they don't get the debasement and defilement and let's be honest the rape that you feel when you have the options of holding your arms up for seven seconds so they can get your naked body in view, or be felt up by an airport security madam (I'm talking women, but you men assuredly have a male version of a madam available to feel you up if desired.).
So you try reason. If intelligence works the way it should it will be a far more effective alternative to the airline debasement process. In fact, the airline debasement process was not even relevant during the last security threat; maybe the security folks need to formulate a plan for all those packages coming in from not-so-friendly places. And, I understand that the scanners (and the pat down) don't work if the explosive is ingested. Is this a case of let's look for the lost car keys where the light is better rather than where you lost them? Let's invade American citizens, as they are so much easier than shipments from foreign countries.
And they say they understand that as well but they are sure this will work, and they need to continue to do it this way. After all, the government has paid off so many corporate interests to get these gadgets, and now they are in place and all.
So you know that this is not going to work. It is just going to be more expense and more inconvenience and more humiliation. What do you do about it?
Apparently, we all grumble, and then we raise our arms up high. Maybe, if we think we're really reasonable people, and we don't want to be seen as unpleasant, we make awkward jokes to the woman that's patting us down, or to our families when we're done showing our figure off to the airport screener.
I wonder, if I had a child of twelve, how I would explain this to her (or him). You know, they trust us so if we want to lie that would be fine. In fact, they trust us so much that we could tell them they are x-raying our bodies to make sure we are not terrorists, and they would accept that too.
That makes me want to cry.
Damn it, this is America, people. Stop making excuses, about how it's not a big deal, you'd rather be safe, nobody's going to know it's you. THEY ARE LOOKING AT OUR BODIES.
Why??? Because they are going to find terrorists?????
Well, I am nearly 60. Nobody has patted me down in some twelve years. The thought of this invasion brings tears to my eyes whenever I think of it. The thought of all the smaller indignities, the shoes, the liquids, the opening up of computers, that we have put up with, not to be safer, but because we Americans don't feel we can stop this process. This is just the way it's done.
With all my family living in distant parts of the country, and the piss-poor transportation we have in this country, I have been feeling a bit trapped for some time now. Airports, once such pleasant places where happy things happened at least half the time, are now places of annoyance and intrusion, where every two minutes the loudspeaker requests that you immediately report unattended bags or suspicious looking people. Where they take down your license plate as you leave, as though that is going to prevent an act of terrorism.
Right at this time, I can't see myself putting myself through this. I have, since 9/11, had my bag pawed through. But the gun lobby is protecting the rights of Americans to carry guns. I have had to dump a bottle of water to get to the airport boarding area. But I can then purchase, for $2 or more, a bottle of water before boarding. I have taken my shoes off, bagged my tiny bottle of hand lotion, and don't even think about carrying a computer onto a plane. And yet, because the airlines are charging exhorbitant amounts for luggage, all manor of bizzarre objects are squeezed into planes and overhead compartments, sometimes to fall onto a passenger, and often preventing people from getting to connecting flights, while they wait for people ahead of them to wrestle those big bags to the floor.
I show my drivers license two or three times before I board. I have for a time had to tolerate standing in line while people opened my luggage, sprinkled powder on and around it (looking for explosive). Yet we no longer have humans handling ticketing. We self-ticket, soon we will self-check our bags, and all those points where humans might detect suspicious behavior are gone.
I just heard a TSA representative claim that if people had a choice of taking a flight that had no precautions or a flight that had all these screening measures, people would choose the latter. First of all, adequate precautions are essential. Secondly, the current screening measures are nothing like adequate measures. They have replaced people with machines, and with more machines comes less personal and professional judgment and responsibility. The airlines are allowing the government to take on the full responsibility for the next terrorist act. Airline policies and personnel have become more lax and inadequate as the government has instituted ever more invasive procedures. The government relies on machines and not personal contact and judgment. No, I guess I would opt for neither. What I would choose, given the option, is personnel -- people -- being involved in the process, from check-in to boarding, and all of us being observant. That would make me feel safer.
But since that is not going to happen, I have chosen not to fly. And I wonder when Americans are going to stand up to the government and the corporate interests that have allowed the government to take the easy, less effective way out of pretending to protect us from the terrorists. Right now, it is the government doing the terrorizing. Which is probably quite fine by Al Qaeda, who has raped our bodies and our spirits without having to board a plane.
So you try reason. If intelligence works the way it should it will be a far more effective alternative to the airline debasement process. In fact, the airline debasement process was not even relevant during the last security threat; maybe the security folks need to formulate a plan for all those packages coming in from not-so-friendly places. And, I understand that the scanners (and the pat down) don't work if the explosive is ingested. Is this a case of let's look for the lost car keys where the light is better rather than where you lost them? Let's invade American citizens, as they are so much easier than shipments from foreign countries.
And they say they understand that as well but they are sure this will work, and they need to continue to do it this way. After all, the government has paid off so many corporate interests to get these gadgets, and now they are in place and all.
So you know that this is not going to work. It is just going to be more expense and more inconvenience and more humiliation. What do you do about it?
Apparently, we all grumble, and then we raise our arms up high. Maybe, if we think we're really reasonable people, and we don't want to be seen as unpleasant, we make awkward jokes to the woman that's patting us down, or to our families when we're done showing our figure off to the airport screener.
I wonder, if I had a child of twelve, how I would explain this to her (or him). You know, they trust us so if we want to lie that would be fine. In fact, they trust us so much that we could tell them they are x-raying our bodies to make sure we are not terrorists, and they would accept that too.
That makes me want to cry.
Damn it, this is America, people. Stop making excuses, about how it's not a big deal, you'd rather be safe, nobody's going to know it's you. THEY ARE LOOKING AT OUR BODIES.
Why??? Because they are going to find terrorists?????
Well, I am nearly 60. Nobody has patted me down in some twelve years. The thought of this invasion brings tears to my eyes whenever I think of it. The thought of all the smaller indignities, the shoes, the liquids, the opening up of computers, that we have put up with, not to be safer, but because we Americans don't feel we can stop this process. This is just the way it's done.
With all my family living in distant parts of the country, and the piss-poor transportation we have in this country, I have been feeling a bit trapped for some time now. Airports, once such pleasant places where happy things happened at least half the time, are now places of annoyance and intrusion, where every two minutes the loudspeaker requests that you immediately report unattended bags or suspicious looking people. Where they take down your license plate as you leave, as though that is going to prevent an act of terrorism.
Right at this time, I can't see myself putting myself through this. I have, since 9/11, had my bag pawed through. But the gun lobby is protecting the rights of Americans to carry guns. I have had to dump a bottle of water to get to the airport boarding area. But I can then purchase, for $2 or more, a bottle of water before boarding. I have taken my shoes off, bagged my tiny bottle of hand lotion, and don't even think about carrying a computer onto a plane. And yet, because the airlines are charging exhorbitant amounts for luggage, all manor of bizzarre objects are squeezed into planes and overhead compartments, sometimes to fall onto a passenger, and often preventing people from getting to connecting flights, while they wait for people ahead of them to wrestle those big bags to the floor.
I show my drivers license two or three times before I board. I have for a time had to tolerate standing in line while people opened my luggage, sprinkled powder on and around it (looking for explosive). Yet we no longer have humans handling ticketing. We self-ticket, soon we will self-check our bags, and all those points where humans might detect suspicious behavior are gone.
I just heard a TSA representative claim that if people had a choice of taking a flight that had no precautions or a flight that had all these screening measures, people would choose the latter. First of all, adequate precautions are essential. Secondly, the current screening measures are nothing like adequate measures. They have replaced people with machines, and with more machines comes less personal and professional judgment and responsibility. The airlines are allowing the government to take on the full responsibility for the next terrorist act. Airline policies and personnel have become more lax and inadequate as the government has instituted ever more invasive procedures. The government relies on machines and not personal contact and judgment. No, I guess I would opt for neither. What I would choose, given the option, is personnel -- people -- being involved in the process, from check-in to boarding, and all of us being observant. That would make me feel safer.
But since that is not going to happen, I have chosen not to fly. And I wonder when Americans are going to stand up to the government and the corporate interests that have allowed the government to take the easy, less effective way out of pretending to protect us from the terrorists. Right now, it is the government doing the terrorizing. Which is probably quite fine by Al Qaeda, who has raped our bodies and our spirits without having to board a plane.
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