I fly at least three times a year, sometimes more. I consider myself a “frequent flyer.” The bored-looking Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents don’t know that. So every time I fly, I’m subjected to a monotoned, “Ma’am, please remove the laptop from the case,” even though it’s halfway out of the case already. As if I or anyone else doesn’t know by now to remove laptops.
And this taking off your shoes thing…hate it. Only last year taking off shoes was optional. If you beeped, then you’d take them off and go through the metal detector again. Now it’s mandatory. At least at Reagan National Airport.
I shouldn’t complain, really. I’m fortunate I can afford to fly (barely), but the “security” stuff gets old, you know? I’m resentful that I, probably the most unlikely kind of person on the planet to blow up an airplane, got picked for a “random search” at the gate once, if you can believe that. The whole thing was absolutely stupid. Some gloved “security” person going through my personal things, as if I were any sort of threat! It was an empty, politically correct display of how dumb the government can be. A random search?
I shouldn’t get upset about this stuff. But you see, knowing that undocumented illegal aliens are underneath the terminals working on airplanes while I, an American citizen, am being searched for sharp objects or a bomb raises my blood pressure.
But there may be a “lesser of two evils” solution. Starting this summer, the TSA will offer something called the Registered Traveler card. Frequent flyers like myself can avoid “security” searches and all that other nonsense for a fee. And a government background check into my private affairs:
The program is intended to let frequent air passengers avoid delays and to free up security screeners to focus on other travelers.
The TSA already has tested Registered Traveler at five airports beginning in the summer of 2004 through September 2005. Now it wants private companies to run the program, which was popular with frequent travelers.
Before the companies are allowed to sell Registered Traveler cards, they have to demonstrate that they can somehow figure out whether applicants are members of terrorist sleeper cells by plowing through bank records, insurance data and other personal information available commercially — or by some other method. (Source)
I don’t like it, but this is the age of terrorism. I can either keep complaining about stupid airport security, stop complaining and live with it, or relinquish some of my privacy rights so I can avoid it. Some choice. Life is a series of trade-offs.
Related Update: Speaking of illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement canceled a contract with a private detention facility that held illegal aliens for budgetary reasons, reports Debbie Schlussel.
