"The TSA - Demeaning or Inconvenient?"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“The TSA – Demeaning or Inconvenient?”

November 23, 2010

The increasingly intense debate as to whether our personal freedoms are being violated by overly zealous TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employees groping our most private areas, or whether our health – not to mention our self-respect – is endangered through exposure to X-Ray machines that can look beneath the clothes we wear is a reminder of the distance we have travelled since that horrific day more than nine years ago.

It is understandable why so many see their rights violated – a government that can put its hands between one’s legs or peer under one’s skirt is a government capable of lifting one’s wallet or tracking one’s travels. At LaGuardia last week I was prodded, poked and patted down. I was made to stand before a shield with hands overhead, while anxious heads pondered the wonder they beheld beneath my clothes. And, for almost fifty years, I have had my wallet picked every April. I cannot say that I would choose this option but, then, neither do I like my periodic visits to the proctologist. But I understand their purpose and I can live with them.

The principal role of government is to protect its citizens. Expectations, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, were that Islamic terrorists would strike again. We know that they have tried and have failed, usually due to their own incompetence; at other times authorities, exercising their competence, arrested the perpetrators before the event. Each year almost 800 million people fly domestically and internationally from airports within the United States and from foreign airfields to the U.S. That means that about seven billion people have flown within, to or from the U.S. over the past nine years – that not one plane has been hijacked during that time is a tribute to those charged with keeping us safe. That includes the employees of the TSA.

A visit to my eldest granddaughter’s school this morning – grandparent’s day at Sacred Heart in Greenwich – served as a reminder of the preciousness of life – lives for which these Islamic terrorists are intent on destroying. An extra few minutes in a security line seems a small price to pay.

Is there more that could be done to make flying easier and more customer friendly? I am sure there is. Technology today is such that every boarding pass could have embedded in it a chip providing data about the passenger – nationality, age, gender, prior countries visited, how was the ticket purchased, is the ticket a round trip- enough information to provide the TSA a profile of the passenger, so that they could more closely focus on those that fit certain characteristics, rather that randomly selecting an elderly woman or a young child.

But, in the meantime, if I must forego certain rights that make flying safer I am willing to do so. I recognize that clever people intent on killing can do so. Chance plays a powerful role. I would prefer not to be frisked and I hope that technology permits intelligent profiling; so that those who travel frequently and have shown themselves not to be a security threat will be permitted the free pass recently granted John Boehner, the soon-to-be Speaker of the House. Is the hassle demeaning? Perhaps. Is it inconvenient? Yes, but understandable.

As for taxes and my proctologist, I don’t like them either. The latter is simply a necessity as one ages and the former is the price we pay for living in this land.

There are issues that are far more critical; one’s that should consume more of our focus – education, immigration, tax policy. The time and the energy being expended to prevent some employee of the TSA from putting his hands between my legs could be better spent on more pressing issues.