I traveled this weekend to St. Louis for the Eagle Forum National Convention. As a frequent long-distance traveler, I was prepared for the airport security routine: "take off your shoes...take off your belt..." The check was quite thorough, and I am beginning to appreciate airport security. However, as I was gathering my bag that just exited the little luggage carwash, two ironies struck me:
1. The US government goes to great lengths to provide security against terrorists in airports. If you think about it, TSA treats everyone as a suspected terrorist. While this attitude is not wrong, its an interesting point to ponder. However, the US government continually neglects the security of our borders. If we had even half of the security on the border that we do in airports, the rate of illegal immigration, drug and slave trafficking, and terrorist possibility would plummet.
2. I saw a TSA agent scanning senior citizen with a metal detector. This elderly man obviously posed no threat to airport security; he was probably even a veteran. Yet TSA forced him to stand on that little black mat with his arms spread as they tried to determine whether or not he was a terrorist.
-Societal ironies-
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2 comments:
My family and I were traveling in Georgia last year and went through Atlanta Int'l Airport. The TSA's random search pegged us (I have four brothers) as potential threats and gave us an extra inspection (black mat, probing questions, hard stares, etc). Why can't the TSA fight the real threats?
A good buddy of mine who is politically active posed an interesting question. He wondered if the "random security checks" aren't that random. The government has access to flight data, as well as data on all its citizens. Perhaps it screens those which say things the Bush Administration doesn't like. TSA has stopped him on two consectutive trips...coincidence?
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