The great argument driving TSA rules on x-ray machines and patdowns derives from what was, quite honestly, a horrible act on September 11, 2001.  We’ve been treating air travel with high security for 4 decades starting with hijackings that resulted in bombs and deaths resulting from other horrific acts.  You have to acknowledge that air travel has, in fact, been used as a weapon and as a terrorist act more than once.

These acts have, in my opinion, driven us to accept conditions upon our free movement inside this country that we don’t accept anywhere else.  In fact, we are asked to accept conditions in order to travel by air that we don’t accept in virtually any other place in our lives.  Let me point out that we aren’t asked to accept this level of scrutiny in order to enter a courthouse, the Capitol, a military base or even the White House.  Even with respect to the real world, we aren’t asked to endure this scrutiny to visit a federal building or a movie theater or restaurant.   Think about that for a minute:  we aren’t groped (sexually or otherwise) in order to proceed about our lawful business in virtually any other setting.

I am far from suggesting that there be no security checks in airports.  To the contrary, I believe that there is a level of security that should be applied and applied evenly and without regard to race, religion, etc.   There should be absolutely no exceptions for anyone including flight crew. 

But I do think we’ve gone too far and I do think that we, the public, have been far too accepting of the latest indignities and, quite frankly, inappropriate searches of ourselves and our personal belongings all in the name of “security”.  This is making the free movement about our country a privilege rather than a right and I’m extremely uncomfortable with that.  And to argue that there are other choices is disingenuous at best in this modern age. 

What we’re really doing is carving out exceptions to basic and derived rights on the basis of security theater rather than real security.

It doesn’t just exist at airports although I think airports are the most extreme case.  Recently, I’ve made a number of trips to McAllen, Texas.  Ironically, by car and I’ve witnessed behaviour on the part of several law enforcement agencies that I honestly believe would not only not been tolerated but soundly stopped just 20 years ago.  Imagine traveling 90 miles and seeing 18 State Trooper cars, 5 Border Patrol cars and a mandatory checkpoint where you are interrogated and potentially asked to consent to a search before simply proceeding about your lawful business.

Privacy in this country has traditionally been a very sacred subject.  The right to privacy, to not incriminate oneself and even the right to engage in lawful business between two areas has been infringed upon to a degree that I think it’s changing our country. 

It’s time we start accepting that this world is not and has never been a perfectly safe place and to attempt to make it so does far more harm than it does good.  I’m rather shocked that people haven’t challenged these acts in the courts (is the ACLU really that docile now?) and that we haven’t complained rationally and loudly to our lawmakers and policymakers. 

For the record, I have written Congressmen and Senators and I think others should too.  Also for the record, I am not a libertarian or conservative or liberal.  If anything, I’d be identified as a moderate Democrat that find himself largely unrepresented by either side.

My standard in feeling revulsion at these developments has come from the fact that I’ve realized over the past few years that I actually feel more exposed and less safe as a result of these security measures.  They don’t reassure me and they don’t make me feel that my plane has been adequately protected from threats. 

I do think there are measures we could take and if we’re really serious about security, why aren’t we hiring bright and capable people to perform our security roles?  Furthermore, why are we endorsing a para-military approach to security at our airports when we find that, time and again, this mindset doesn’t result in greater security to ourselves.

I have a great fear that we are going to abrogate more and more rights in this quest to perceive ourselves “safe” that any value we derive from being citizens and residents in a country with uniquely protected basic civil rights will be simply gone.  And I wonder if that isn’t a “win” for terrorists as well.

Just in case you think I’m the only one out there disturbed by these many farces, read FL250’s post HERE.

Filed under: Airline News, Airports by ajax