Fight or Flight

Groping, defined by dictionary.com as “fondling, touching affectionately,” is a staple occurrence at nightclubs, in sleazy MTV reality shows and now in airports? At least that’s what travelers are calling it.
New safety measures instituted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) earlier this year have caused a public outcry against “excessive touching.” A Colorado attorney recently filed a lawsuit against TSA officials, claiming his daughter’s full body pat-downs were “disgusting, unconscionable, [and] sexual in nature,” and another woman accused the TSA of “sexual assault.” Which is, you know, entirely plausible. In a public airport. In front of other passengers and airport personnel and security.
I understand what a hassle airport security can be these days. The sighs of annoyance from disgruntled passengers as they whip off their shoes and empty their pockets are evident. Yet, before we continue ranting on about how unconstitutional these safety measures are, we must consider their purpose, which probably isn’t aimed to humiliate and mortify travelers, but merely to aid in protecting them.
It has been nine years since the 9/11 attacks shook our nation to the core and a year after the notorious Underwear Bomber incident; Americans have already forgotten the value of flight safety. If the Underwear Bomber lesson taught us anything, besides not to put explosives in your undergarments, it’s that terrorists have become more innovative and that nothing is out of the question these days.
Being searched, even aggressively, seems like a small price to pay for a safe flight in comparison to, say, blowing up midair. Travelers are acting as if these searches are being conducted by sex-starved convicts and not professionally trained TSA inspectors of the same gender.
So I plead with the American people to stop crying “rapist,” or “Communist,” every time they get patted down. Because the alternative to less strictly enforced regulations is no alternative at all. Let the officials do their jobs; they’re probably as thrilled about it as you are.
Yvonne Lee,
Editor in Chief