Like many other LRC readers, I've read with interest Joe Sobran's recent articles on his adventures with airport security forces. I thought that readers may be interested to know that it's not just shady-looking characters like Mr. Sobran who are getting harassed.
The insanity of non-discrimination in airport security policy is reaching new heights, as my wife and I found when we recently flew from New York to Rochester, Minnesota.
My wife is petite, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She looks about as much like a terrorist as Osama Bin Laden looks like a country singer. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of packing a u201Clargeu201D nail clipper [gasp!] in her carry-on bag. As a result, we got to experience the same routine as Mr. Sobran and so many others since 9-11: patiently waiting while every pocket and compartment in her bag was searched.
But things really got interesting on the return flight. Rochester's claim to fame is that it is home to the Mayo Clinic. Many of the people who travel to Rochester do so because they need treatment for some type of illness at Mayo.
My ears first perked up when I overheard a woman, clearly at least in her eighties, saying that security had confiscated her nail file. She wasn't upset, but she seemed shocked that things had come to this level.
As we prepared to board, I looked over toward the line and saw another woman, also probably close to eighty, in a wheelchair. She was slumped over, with a glazed look in her eyes. It was hard to tell if she knew what was going on around her. Yet security had taken her aside, thoroughly searching through her bags, nicely unpacking her clothes and displaying them for all to see. It was embarrassing.
Once on line, we saw another woman, this one probably in her sixties. I did not know the nature of her ailment, but she leaned heavily on her walker, and her movement was very slow. She received the same royal treatment.
Anyone with a brain and at least one functioning eye could take a look at my wife, or any of the three women above, and know beyond any doubt that they are obviously not terrorists. While you may not be able to tell that someone is a terrorist by simply looking at them, you can certainly tell that some are not terrorists at a glance. Just take another look at a picture of the 9/11 terrorists. Notice any blonde women? Any elderly women? Any wheelchair-bound women?
People seem to have passively accepted these intrusions, by assuming that all this is necessary for our safety. But by failing to discriminate (yes, discriminate) between likely and non-likely terrorists, the baggage-checkers are more likely to miss someone who poses a real threat. For this reason, these measures make us less safe, not more safe.
December 12, 2001
