Some Common Sense with respect to Travel Security -- It's Not A Joke

Like other travelers I have dutifully removed my shoes , undergone being frisked by security personnel, put items from my purse in a plastic bag to be screened, removed my overcoat, jacket, jewelry etc., and placed it on belt, etc. etc.  And in doing so truly believed at some level that we were being made secure.  That all this inconvenience and depersonalization was worth it.  We were safe.

But when a man got on a plane the other day in the Netherlands and flew to the United States with the ability to blow a hole in the door of the plane with explosive material he carried with him,  the illusion of safety on a plane evaporated.  Moreover, the solutions the TSA has presented as further ways to protect flyers has finally tipped the patience of most travelers. While up until now, travelers have dealt with the added regulations with some forebearance, their tolerance has dried up with respect to the additional rules, which seem not only inconvenient and troublesome, but downright silly.

It hasn't taken some of the humor  tweeps long to make comments like:

@antderosa
New TSA regulation requires passengers must hold breath for the final hour of flight while humming “kumbaya”

@badbanana

I sure hope these incidents don’t hold up my wire transfer from Nigeria.

@petrillic
“TSA - Protecting you from yesterday, tomorrow.” #tsaslogans

@wilw
It’s only a matter of time before the TSA decides that passengers simply will not be permitted to board airplanes. You know, for safety.

@AlisonSWellner

I’m personally looking forward to spending the last hour of a flight glaring suspiciously at my fellow

What troubles me in the humor of this is that it's really not funny.  I am traveler.  I want to travel a lot.  I don't want to afraid to get on a plane.  I am willing to do whatever is reasonable to be made safe on my journeys. But I also, like most people,  have common sense.  And I know a pilot's refraining from telling me we are now flying over the Rockies or the Statue of Liberty isn't going to add to my safety.  I am fearful that new knee-jerk regulations will actually cause travelers to be more lax, and make it more difficult for airline personnel to manage basic safety.


I want to believe that many of the regulations that have been put in place have made travel safer. But I also know logically that the key is not enacting more rules about what can be done or not done on a plane.  It's keeping dangerous individuals off  planes to begin with. The individual who recently tried to set off an explosion on the Delta flight had been flagged by his own parent as a possible terrorist.   Why wouldn't he have been more closely scrutinized?  We, as travelers, have to insist that our government agencies develop better ways for screening potential threats and keeping them off planes instead of coming up with rules that just don't make sense.

.. Category: travel issue