The problem is that once you accept the premise that any of this nonsense is necessary to begin with, there's no rational basis for exempting children. A terrorist could hide explosives in a child's underwear just as easily as in an adults -- more easily, in fact, if the child is still wearing a diaper. So following TSA's tortuous "logic," diapered passengers should receive the most thorough pat searches of all travelers.
That's assuming, of course, that you accept the premise that
any of this is necessary.
For those of us who believe it's just a circus to begin with, incidents like this actually help our cause. There's no way TSA can justify exempting children from being groped and fondled without defeating the whole alleged security purpose. What's the point of groping all the adult passengers if we allow babies and toddlers aboard un-groped? A terrorist could hide a heck of a lot of C-4 in a diaper.
But at the same time, parents (and society in general) are more protective of children, and making them scream in terror every time they board an airplane tends to make for bad PR. It also presents TSA with a delightfully difficult dilemma: Do they give the kids a pass, and thus remove any doubt that the whole grope-down procedure is a farce, or do they continue to antagonize the traveling public by terrorizing their children until someone makes them stop?
My money's on the latter. I doubt TSA will do the right thing on its own. Unless someone higher-up forces them to back down, the agency will not do it voluntarily. They're too hung up on their power trip.
I can't help but look at TSA as sort of a living reenactment of Philip Zimbardo's
Stanford Prison Experiment. The main difference is that Zimbardo had the good sense to prematurely stop his experiment after six days. The Federal government being, well, the Federal government, lacks a similar quotient of common sense.
So when will it end? Well, I fear that it's only a matter of time before some enraged parent hauls off and decks a TSO for fondling and/or causing pain to his or her kid, and the rest of the assembled
victims passengers break out in wild applause and cheer the parent on.
I mean, let's face it: When you cause enough pain and humiliation to enough people who are merely trying to get from one place to another, eventually you're going to push someone past his or her breaking point. Parental instincts are very strong, and the odds are that some day, some TSO is going to mess with the wrong parent's kid, and the parent will lose it and beat the daylights out of the TSO. The TSO will go home with two black eyes and minus a few teeth, and the parent will go to jail.
But the real question for the government will be who's side Joe Six-Pack is on. Will the public rally to the parent's cause, like many did to that stressed-out FA who grabbed a brew and popped the chute after being abused by one pax too many, or will they back the guy with the tin badge who fondles children and makes them cry?
One thing's for certain: If and when that day ever comes, and the case goes to trial, the government had better make sure that there are no other parents on the jury.
-Rich
:wink2::wink2:
