Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

What would you tolerate to travel by air? I have been thinking about this lately, especially after the latest round of public outcry over the new body scanners and pat downs.

I was thinking about my last two trips via the friendly skies and thought of a couple of things that seemed new since the previous time I had flown. In Des Moines, where going through security tends to be more like visiting neighbors and friends at a block party, it was pretty much business as usual, but was startled a little by the gate screening that took place before we boarded the flight to Atlanta. One TSA agent with dog, and two screeners approached the line of the tired and weary travelers as we stood waiting to hand the gentlemen at the counter our boarding passes. At first I didn’t think anything about it, but as they started to “randomly” pick people out of line for a “pat down” right there in front of God and everybody.

Most didn’t mind but there was one middle aged woman who took every opportunity to voice her displeasure at being frisked, mugged or as she called it, being manhandled by the airport Gestapo. Now while I agree that no one really likes these little brushes with the graduates of mall cop academy, comparing them to the Nazi secret police might just be a little over the top.

Flying back home from Cleveland, an airport I’ve been through a couple of times, I was two steps away from getting to be one of the first to be subjected to the “body scanner” which reminded me of a Star Trek teleporter. As luck would have it the person in front of me had neglected to declare the metal rod running down his femur so I was pushed to the next line while SWAT team members rappelled down through the ceiling and into the booth with the poor soul. OK, So it wasn’t quite that over the top, but one could definitely tell something was “going down”.

It’s what we’ve all come to expect in order to keep us safe in the sky. No one really thought much about it until the “don’t touch my junk” guy hit the airwaves with his threat to have the TSA agent arrested for molestation. Come on people….are we really this dumb? Have we forgotten just what kind of country we live in and how it got this way?
Think about it…as long as there are people who are willing to take an airplane and fly it into a building I’m certainly not going to get wound up by some overzealous brushing the “no..no..don’t touch me there” spots, especially if it keeps me from being a person on the plane when it crashes!

We, you and I and the “don’t touch my junk” guy have to expect this in every aspect of our lives! If everyone drove with respect and courtesy and could do so at 100 m.p.h. I’m pretty sure we probably wouldn’t worry much about speed limits. If you and I could make sure that if we ever got into an automobile wreck without ejecting ourselves from the car or doing serious physical harm to ourselves, do you think there would be seat belt laws? (And while we are on the subject someone please explain to me how come I can sit in a 5000 lbs. steel cage with four wheels, and have every occupant strapped in and yet anyone can hop on two wheels and go zipping down the road without a helmet….Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? Representative Garrett are you listening here??)

The issue here folks, is that laws…even stupid ones are made to protect ourselves from our own …uh..um…selves. It’s like one giant warning label on the tube of foot cream that is life reminding us not to take it internally. We have governed ourselves silly simply because we can. Sure there are some laws we don’t like, and yes even some that make you scratch you head and wonder if someone just wanted to be sure we were paying attention. Regardless, good or bad, in order to have safe travel by air, we have to give up some of our freedoms and rights. Yeah, it’s a pain and yes we don’t have to like it, but before you stand up and scream too loud, I think we all need to remember that it’s the price we pay for safety, and I’m just going to guess that if what we have to endure to travel would have stopped what happened that crisp horrible September morning…not one person would be raising a stink. Now someone pass the sweet potatoes please.

See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.