I have thrown my private fits over the enhanced body images and pat downs. Here are a couple of issues that I find most pressing.
First, how am I supposed to teach my daughter about exploitation? I don't buy it when TSA claims they do not have the capability to save the images. In a court of law, TSA would have to supply the image of a defendant with a weapon or fluids on what have you on the person of the accuesd. They can save images. I have now lost the ability to tell my daughter that it is unacceptable for strangers to view her naked body. Further, I have lost the ability to tell my daughter that it is unacceptable for strangers to touch her genitals and her breasts.
Second, that these methods of search are instituted says horrible things about our intelligence agencies. When I say such things, people accuse me of bigotry towards Arabs and Muslims or that I want racial profiling. That is a simplistic view of security and our intelligence capabilities. We should have sophisticated enough intelligence that tracks where people travel and are from. If some liberal young adult from California, say John Walker Lind, where to travel to hostile nations, hang out with suspected terrorists, conduct his life in a suspicious manner, he should be subject to further screening. People who have recently visited terrorist hot beds should be targeted for additional screening. If we have the intelligence to bust prostitution rings and gangs, we ought to have proper intelligence to bust terrorists prior to their arrival at the airport. If we do not have such intelligence, Homeland Security needs to be held in account for how it spends our money.
If I am a bigot for saying that people who travel to, or are born in, countries that are sponsors of terrorism should be screened, people who hang out with pastors and imams who tout violence should be screened, people who exhibit suspicious behavior should be screened.... then I am a bigot.
However, these issues still need to be discussed: If TSA agents can view enhanced pictures of a child or touch a child's genitals and breasts, why can't a teacher or janitor or another person in authority; and how does a parent explain the difference to a child? And, why isn't Homeland Security implementing the intelligence it gathers for real methods of providing for our security?
