Travel Lightly or Lighten Up

UPDATE, 11/25/'10:  The much ballyhooed protests predicted in the media for Wednesday, November 24th at airports around the nation failed to materialize.  While air travel was up 11% from last year on the same day before Thanksgiving, the actual numbers of protesters of the TSA policy were minute, tiny, nearly non-existent at less than 1%.  The response to that disastisfaction should be proportional, not over-responsive; and it should be constructive, not reactive or appeasing.

A few figures noting scanner opt-outs possibly in protest (although not specifically), in no particular order, listing available data:
Boston: 300 out of 56,000
Los Angeles: 113 out of 50,000
Detroit: 57 out of 25,000
Atlanta: 39, out of 47,000 air travelers
Charlotte: 1, out of 18,000
Cincinnati: 15
St. Louis:  7
New Orleans: 6
Memphis: 5
Dallas/Fort Worth: 1
 

So much for the negligible protest of the scanners and pat down.  All those predicting that there was a huge push back, a potent objection among the traveling public to this security measure? You were wrong.  All those predicting this was an attempt by the TSA to 'condition us to a new police state'? You're stupid....and WRONG, as only the right wing fringe fanatics can be wrong when they promote Moral Panic.

The most intelligent comments I've seen on the TSA to date, in contrast to the right's hysteria is that the TSA measures may or may not be effective in actually stopping terrorist attempts.  But more effective than actually catching terrorists making the attempt, is the premise that our 'security theater' IS causing those individuals bent on carrying out terrorism against us to resort to less reliable tools and methods (an observation made in one media interview with security technology expert and author, Bruce Schneier, author "Beyond Fear").

Personally, I'm pressed to understand how anything WE can do would be more of a deterrent than the actions of the undi-bomber injuring his private parts in the explosion in his pants which severely burned his genitalia, an excruciating and disabling injury.  All the promises of anticipated bliss, either with actual or metaphorical virgins in the heavenly hereafter doesn't have the impact of damaging your pleasuring generative bits in the here and now.  If I have a criticism of the TSA it is that it is reactive to the attempt 11 months ago by the 'fruit of the boom' bomber, and a few years ago by the 'shoe bomber'.  I hope we are allocating at least some of our security resources to looking at alternate attempts in the present and future.

But in the meantime, I'm going to pop some popcorn, and sit back and watch the entertainment - the speedo guy, and the bikini girl, and the generally silly hysteria on the right.  Fiction sources couldn't make up anything as goofy as that to amuse us, which apparently includes the right politicos, and right-wing 'nooz' media and 'moral panic paranoiacs' in the guise of factual commenters.

Here is a thought to take with you if you're flying any time soon.  If you do see someone who appears to be in Muslim attire (assuming you can tell that from Sikh or other ethnic clothing), consider that they are vastly outnumbered by the rest of us in western clothing, with western habits.  Consider that they are almost certainly more afraid of us, in that context, than we are of them.  And step outside the right wing moral panic, assert your intellect over dumb emotion, and for god sake 'grow a pair' (regardless of your actual gender).  Make a kind gesture towards them, respecting possible cultural differences.  Close, if only in a small personal way, the gap that terrorists would like to grow between 'us' and 'them' and that the right wing-nuts would like to foster through islamophobia.

Simple human kindness is an underestimated quality.  This may in fact be the single most effective act you can take to 'undo' terrorism, fear and hatred, in contrast to billions of dollars spent on anti-terrorist personnel and equipment.  You will certainly feel better, and god willing, so will that other person who had initially caused you unease.

It is what I would do. - DG


(see additionally our new feature at the very bottom of our blog page)
********************************
There is much ballyhoo about TSA pat-downs and the advanced screening currently being implemented across airports in the United States.

I have two words, "Lighten Up."

First, while the screening machine does give you a small dose of radiation, it's about the same as 3 minutes in an airplane at 30,000 feet. If you don't want the radiation, you have MUCH bigger worries than the machine, in fact, you'd best not fly.

Second, if you don't want to be "patted down", don't fly. Flying isn't a right, like driving, it's a priveledge, and the TSA has the authority of the Commerce Clause behind it which gives it the authority to regulate interstante commerce. It can limit travel, it can put you on no-fly lists, and it can prevent you from carrying bombs or guns onto planes. Getting patted down now is little different from being "wanded" if you set off the metal detectors and then, if necessary, patted down, 10 years ago.

If we are concerned about eroding liberty, then we should ahve been concerned 10 years ago, or 30, when we started effectively searching people with metal detectors. Our European trading partners don't bat an eye at this. This isn't a violation of your Constitutional protection against random search because you consent to the search by asking to travel on a commercial airliner at a federally and governmentally (state) funded facility, but IF you think it is, then don't travel by air or hire a private jet.

If you don't want to do that, then I suggest you get over yourself and lighten up.