Caitlin LENTZ – Guest Reporter
Just recently, I found myself at the right place at the right time. I was standing behind a small girl, aged ten, and her mother in the long lines of airport security. For such an early morning flight, the girl was neatly clothed in a black little dress with black patent shiny shoes. On the other hand, the mother looked completely out of sorts, but held her outward appearance. From the short amount of time, or shall I say long considering I was dealing with airport security lines, I overheard the mother telling her daughter the two were getting on a plane to go to their grandfather’s funeral. I was completely devastated, however, the devastation did not stop there.
The moment the two reached the security checkpoint, they were greeted, or should I say ignored, by the security personnel. The employee droned out, “ID, Ma’am,” then disgustedly looked at the ID, glared at the child, then let them through security. Being an outsider, I felt the employee’s behavior was rude and obnoxious.
Yet again, things did not stop here. It was after the two walked through security that they were separated; the mother was escorted to a line to the right, while the child was escorted to the line across from the other. It is here where I lost my respect for airport security.
The small girl continued down the line, which was the one line with the ‘air puffer’ machine. A male employee ordered the girl to step in and briefly described that it would send a puff of air to check for any explosive residue. He then stated, “You might want to hold your dress down.”
I stood there, a few feet behind, completely shocked I had witnessed such a unexplainable event. It is simply not moral for any such person to experience a humiliating event.
For all I know, airports will soon be using technology to strip search each passenger – oh wait, they already do.
The airport security process is truly stripping American’s of their dignity.
From the check-in counter at the airport to the terminal gate, Americans are stretched to their extremes with long wait lines, unfriendly customer service, and the hassle of lugging around heavy bags, not to mention the security process, where, more times than not, one ends up going through the x-ray machine stripped of her jacket, belt, shoes, and jewelry.
Consider the hassles of families traveling with small children. Strollers must be folded to fit through the small entrance of the x-ray scanning machine and any liquids (creams, bottles, or formula) must be limited to smaller containers, which can be quite an inconvenience if a passenger has to sort through his luggage to find each container of liquid, to have every bottle thrown away by security personnel because it is over the allotted limit.
Airport security, especially after the terrorist attacks on September 11, has become too invasive and too demanding upon the public. It is odd that so many Americans are compliant to the way airport security currently is- a system which robs Americans of their pride.
However, the most shocking result of all is that Americans are obedient. They stand in long lines as they slowly realize they could be late for their flight. They strip down in front of complete strangers because it has been labeled as ‘necessary’ by those in authority. They gladly answer questions of their identity, their name, and their race, and if any of these answers produce concern, Americans will obey to being searched using pat-down procedures.
When it comes to airport security, a strong sense of enforcement prevails, but it is questionable whether the enforcement measures are making airports, and flying, any safer.
Former foreign correspondent with National Public Radio and former reporter for The New York Times, Eric Weiner sarcastically says in his article entitled, “Post-9/11 Airport Security: Do You Know Where Your Dignity Is?” that “the confiscation of nail clippers and lighters and jars of peanut butter are designed to…make us all feel a bit safer.” His comical viewpoint highlights the subjectivity of the matter.
It is with ease that American’s state they feel insecure with the results of the new security.
A recent survey posted in Junior Reporter for U. S. News and World Report, Matthew Bandyk’s article entitled, “What Airport Security Costs You,” lists 46% of Americans feel the security implementations following the September 11 terrorist attacks are not strong enough.”
Others are completely fed up with the entire system and say, “Many would-be airline passengers vow to avoid flying because they do not want to deal with the long check-in lines, random searches, shoe inspections, and other security-related inconveniences they now encounter,” says freelance writer Brian Hansen in his article entitled, “Future of the Airline Industry.”
Whatever the case might be, the systems implemented are simply not appropriate.
The right to fly and travel is a privilege for Americans and this privilege is rapidly being destroyed by the current security measures.
A new system needs to be implemented that constructively combines a high standard of security with a concept of customer convenience. This system will take the form of a conveyor belt in which machines are strategically placed for passengers to quickly walk through.
The future of airport security lies in the growing field of technology. It is up to Americans to step in and fill these shoes, or else the process of removing one’s shoes at security checkpoints will continue.
Respectfully, I disagree. The main concern should not be dignity, it should be safety. If we knew, for example, with absolute certainty that someone getting on a particular plane had a bomb, would we balk at strip searches, etc. I think not. The problem is not that we are facing indignities–which we certainly are–it is that airport security is looking for the wrong thing: explosives and other objects. What they should be looking for is terrorists who want to kill us. The same reporters who deride the indignities faced by airline passengers are even more vociferous in their criticism of a policy that tries to find people and not substances. “Racial profiling” is the cri de coeur of these folks and they are making us all less safe.