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Nov. 26, 2004 Fox News was doing a piece on airport security and the increased hands-on frisking going on, and there was a young man on, apparently a spokesperson or even a high-up administration guy from the Transportation Security Agency (I lobbied against federalizing the airport security process), and in between videos of stone-faced women making strange and mystic gestures around the cleavage and buttocks of lady passengers, and videos of men making similar mystic gestures around the crotches of men, the young man said something I considered amazingly stupid: "It's all about the weapons, not about the person." In order to justify this statement, which appears erroneous on the face of it (how many blue-haired grandmas hijack airplanes?), he said that the screeners had found one grandma with a knife tucked into her bra. The logical inference, it would seem, is that grandma planned to hijack the airplane with this knife. But let's think about it. In the 60 years of airliner activity before 9/11, was it not permissible to carry fairly large-bladed pocket knives on airplanes? Yes it was. I have done so many times, including international flights. I have a Gerber 450 E-Z Out which has accompanied me all over the USA and to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. It might surprise the young man from the TSA that I never hijacked an airplane with it. In fact, I never intended to hijack an airplane with it. If Mothers Against Drunk Driving had taken the same approach, would they have pestered the police to confiscate all alcohol found in vehicles? How about the case of beer in the trunk of the guy on his way home from the corner grocery the day before his buddies are coming over to watch the big football game? If it's all about the weapons, not about the person, shouldn't he have been arrested and his beer confiscated? I propose that it is NOT all about the weapons. It is about the person and the person's intentions. And in order to avoid hurting the feelings of some muslim or some Middle-Eastern-looking lady, we have to fondle blue-haired grandmas, baby sisters, wives, and the occasional Hollywood starlet who passes through the airport. Personally, I would feel safer if grandma were allowed to keep that pistol hidden in her hollowed-out book. She might be able to take out a terrorist or two with it. And I suggest that, if every passenger who held a valid concealed-carry license were allowed to pack heat on every plane, it would do more to promote airline security that frisking grandmas. But yes, for heaven's sake, frisk the burka-clad lady who might have a anti-tank missile under there, or the skinny, stone-faced Middle Eastern young woman with the strangely-shaped explosive- packed brassieres. It is about the person, you see. For it is only certain persons who are going to use the weapons to bring down the planes. Let me know when airport security finds a blue-haired Jewish grandma or a blonde 5-yr- old girl who is planning on hijacking an airplane and I might change my mind. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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