Security for whom & against what?(The Last Word)

Anyone who has flown on commercial airlines since 9-11 knows that America has changed dramatically. Invasive and humiliating searches have become routine procedure. Long lines, delays, metal detectors, explosive residue detectors, partial disrobing, wanding, pat-downs, multiple I.D. checks, intrusive questioning about your destination--all part of the price of security in the war on terror, fight?

Millions of Americans, no doubt, resignedly submit to these indignities, inconveniences and erosions of individual privacy and freedom consoled in the belief that, given the terror threat, these measures somehow are making us safer. After all, on a good day, these airport security measures take only a few minutes and are relatively pain-free. Unless, that is, you are infirm or injured. At a recent airport security check, for instance, I witnessed a frail, arthritic, old woman (perhaps 90 years of age) going through the routine. An insensitive Transportation Security Administration agent was ordering her to lift her arms out higher, perpendicular to her body, so that she could be searched with the electric wand. The feeble woman, who was as thin as a matchstick, complained that her arthritis prevented her from lifting her arms any higher. It was obvious that the search procedures were causing her physical pain, in addition to mortification.

At my next airport inspection, I saw a similar outrage, as an elderly couple (probably in their late 70s) ahead of me in line received the third degree. The wife was injured, in a wheelchair, with her foot in a cast. Her husband was complying with security procedures, but with obvious mounting exasperation. He had, as directed, taken off his belt and shoes, watch, etc. and unbuttoned his pants fly and was going through the wanding and pat-down. But his attention was directed toward his wife, whom the TSA personnel had forced to get up out of the wheelchair so they could inspect the chair and search her. The poor woman was in obvious pain, yet she was forced to hobble through the magnetometer and then stand on the painted footprints for a wanding and further examination. Due to her age and condition (remember she had a cast on one leg, so was trying to balance all her weight on the other), she nearly toppled over a couple times during the process. The husband, teeth clenched and blood pressure rising, was manifestly infuriated at the treatment meted out to his crippled, suffering spouse.

I observed all of this while undergoing my own "special" search. As one who flies frequently, I realize that every so often I will be randomly chosen to receive a more extensive, violative search of my person and possessions. For me, that ...