Sunday, December 05, 2010

Patted Down

Here I am in Ft.Lauderdale waiting to board a ship. The trip down was uneventful even though I was anticipating a problem at Logan Airport. Given all the commotion there has been about TSA's security efforts, I was expecting to be put through a minor form of hell that was worse than purgatory. Guess what? Nothing really happened. Our country is still safe from terrorists like me.

I think the ease with which I went through the procedure was due to a couple of factors. Because of a disability, I have been subjected to pat-downs for virtually all the flights I've taken in the 21st century and before. Then, the TSA agent could not have been nicer and more understanding. He explained everything he was going to do (the explanations were a tad excessive) but nothing he did was an invasion of my privacy or an affront to my sexuality.

Since I do feel that our strong focus on air travel is misplaced, I mentioned the lack of TSA attention to transportation modes which carry many more people than air. He acknowledged that the TSA does focus on air travel, however, he said that he, as a TSA agent, has been involved with preventing terrorism on other travel modes. Just two days ago he had been dealing with the transit police of a major metropolitan area.

Is the brouhaha about the full body scans, which I also underwent and did not find overly invasive, or is it due to insensitive agents?

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