No Room For Modesty In Airport Security

At various times of my career as a writer and in the entertainment business, I have had to travel by air quite frequently. With the exception of the occasional extended delay or layover, those trips have been reasonably uneventful, including the security checkpoints.

Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, however, that all changed. I remember flying to Las Vegas the following spring and spending more than two hours one security line, three in another and four in yet another. It was maddening. Back then, people were ok with it. No one got upset, save for the kids and the generally impatient people we all run into at airports.

The images of 9/11 were still fresh in our minds; airliners, hijacked by terrorists and killing thousands in massive fireballs and plumes of torrential debris from collapsing skyscrapers. Back then, no one seemed to mind the added security, even though it wasn't as personally invasive as those measures now taken by the Transportation Security Administration.

Unfortunately, nine years later, we've gotten soft. We've relaxed in our superiority over the terrorists. While we're getting softer, the terrorists are getting smarter about their sabotage methods. Exploding underwear, bombs the size of a cell phone and any number of other devices are now in play, easily hidden from past detection methods.

Americans still have a hard time with the concept that these people don't care who they kill - including themselves. They are willing to give up their lives to murder thousands at once. They're not interested in killing one or two, to them that's a waste of a bomb. They want hundreds at one time. And they want Americans.

The TSA has come under fire for the exceptionally personal pat downs and body scanning machines now in use to counter more creative terror activities. Screeners are accused of being too "touchy feely" and at one point even making a woman show her prothstetic breast to prove it was what she said. That might seem over the top to many who worry about having their personal space violated, and maybe something like that is a special case that needs to be handled far more delicately, but there is a real danger there.

We all need to understand that when Al Qaeda or other terror groups decide to hit again, they're not going to send a guy looking suspiciously like Osama Bin Laden. The bomber will look like Joe Smith, the happy business traveler from Hoboken, and the bomb will be surgically implanted in his arm and triggered by his wristwatch. I know it sounds like something from a James Bond movie, but the possibilities are real.

With the holiday travel season upon us, security agencies will need to be more diligent than ever. The more the media publicizes our outrage at being violated by body scans, the more leverage the bad guys have in manipulating the security of our airports.

Ironically, it seems that the only people complaining are the occasional travelers. Most frequent fliers I have heard from may be annoyed by the scans and pat downs, but are willing to put up with them in the interest of safety.

There is really no room for modesty when it comes to the lives of hundreds of thousands of passengers traveling on commercial airliners. If a full body scan seems too personally invasive, I suggest you rent a car or take a bus.

My family and I may be on that plane with you and I want it checked - nose to tail - that goes for the flight crew as well. If that means some big, burly security guy has to go digging through your underwear right along with mine, so be it.

Gery L. Deer is an independent columnist and business writer from Jamestown, Ohio. Read more at www.gerydeer.com.