Enhanced Airport Screening: An Indecent Proposal

This post is about airport security screening in November 2010.  For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, air travelers now cannot fly without undergoing either an imaging scan that displays the nude form to an observer, or an intrusive pat-down including genital groping and potential strip-searching.

I did not at first appreciate the gravity of this issue.  I was one of the majority who had no problem with “enhanced screening” because of its perceived necessity in an era of terrorist threat.  I wish to thank those who helped me gain clarity via their comments following various stories on news websites and YouTube, by means of which I came to understand the injustice which is being done. I am confident that as the full situation becomes clearer to more people, opposition to this over-the-top procedure will grow. 

If you are new to this topic, “enhanced screening” is a term coined by the author.  It makes subtle reference to the use of torture against suspected terrorists at Guantanamo prison.  Supporters of the use of torture euphemistically called it “enhanced interrogation.”

[Euphemism: “a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive.”]

For those of you who haven’t figured out the point of view Gryphem will present, here is a pictographic foreshadow.  You will see these words again.

"Enhanced Airport Screening"

New invasive inspection techniques cross the line.

The terrorists who hate us and wish for our demise have no further need to attack us.  They have set the process of our collapse in motion and it is now continuing of its own volition.  We have become the agents of our own demise.

It is not from terrorist attack that we will fail as an American nation dedicated to freedom and equality.  Not directly, anyway.  All the terrorists had to do was inflict one wound upon us, deadly but not crippling to our nation.  In our anger, fear, and frustration, we have done the rest.

There was no reason for the attacks of September 11, 2001 to bring about the demise of freedom in the United States of America.  To think that the terrorists could have triumphed in that conflict was ludicrous.  But they never intended to defeat us themselves.  They intended to provoke a response and watch us destroy ourselves.  We have complied. 

We have allowed our values to be compromised.  Our civil liberties have evaporated because we have allowed ourselves to give in to fear, anger, and frustration.  We have gone against all previous American tradition, of the past century at least, in condoning torture.  We have allowed a right-wing administration to eavesdrop on us and hold our fellow-citizens without trial for years at a time, in direct contradiction of the U.S. Constitution and established legal principle.  We have allowed a left-wing administration to impose an injustice upon the entire populace rather than make the "politically incorrect" admission that certain groups may hate us and our America.

The airport screening debacle is the latest episode in a continuing tragedy.  It provides a clear depiction of just how much of our dignity and American values we have traded for safety – or for the perception of safety.

Now, apparently, we are willing to molest, and allow one another to be molested, in the name of preventing another terrorist attack.  All must submit to screening.  This is the mandate from our federal government, and no one is immune.  All must comply - the old, the infirm, the little children.  This is being imposed upon us not by terrorists, but by our own government.  What would you think of a man who would allow his own wife and children to be imaged nude or groped, for his own safety?  Not much?  What do you think of a nation which imposes this on its own people?  This Soviet-style dictate is unprecedented in American history and tradition.

The evil ones are laughing in their caves in the remote reaches of south-central Asia.  Their work is done.  We will publicly molest our own children out of fear that they may be the tools of terrorists.  In our paranoia, terrified, we have agreed to compromise our moral convictions to attempt to buy security. 

We are abandoning our own traditional values and laws. 

• Gone is our discernment.  We now impose unjust violation upon thousands of people every day.  There is no need for probable cause to believe anyone is a terrorist; all must submit.  A track record of commitment to America and her traditional values is meaningless; all must submit.
• NOTE:  The actual translated meaning of Islam is “submission.’  Who is winning in the jihad to force us to submit?
• Gone is our commitment to protect our children.  There is no need for the terrorist to harm our children, because to protect ourselves, we will violate our own children.  If our children are victimized, that is the price we must pay to protect ourselves.
• Gone is our reason.  In most European countries, air travelers still do not have to remove their shoes.  Instead of trying to inspect every square inch of every traveler, screeners actually speak with persons boarding planes.  Those who obviously pose no threat pass with a minimum of inconvenience.  Not a bad plan.
• Gone is our sense of proportionality.  In the name of equal treatment of all ethnicities, races, nationalities, genders, we refuse to actually attempt to discern who might or might not be a threat.  The end result:  We violate everyone.
• NOTE: I do not believe all Islamic persons are terrorists, and to require all Moslem persons to undergo unjust and unreasonable violation on the basis of their religious affiliation would be an affront as great as or greater than what we now see.  However, since the terrorists who seek to cause us harm are overwhelmingly Islamic, perhaps we should adjust our procedures to recognize that simple fact.  Perhaps we should both protect the constitutional rights of Islamic persons and also begin our search for the threat among that community.  This is not violation of rights; it is good investigative and security procedure.
• Gone is our Constitution.  The supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, had been under assault in many ways throughout our history, and this is one of the more egregious affronts.  The Bill of Rights clearly states: 
• “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…” 
• How can anyone reasonably argue that these procedures are NOT a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, as well as a violation of the persons involved?  [A rhetorical question…]

We have let circumstance make cowards of us all.  Some have acquiesced to injustice out of fear or hatred of those who wish to harm us.  Others have acquiesced because of apathy.  Now we must decide, once again…  Will we stand up with courage, live our values, end the injustice, be worthy of our heritage of justice, equality, and continual improvement?  Or will we stand by and watch our America die a slow cancerous death – perhaps instigated by external factors, but now destroying the body and soul of America from within. 

All people in all times have a choice.  Ours is whether to accept the challenge before us with courage, or to defend unjust and unconstitutional decrees as “necessary,” or to remain silent and “safe.”

I think it’s time to listen to the courageous Founding Fathers, who risked everything for their liberty, and ours.  I think it’s time to prove that we are worthy heirs.  I think it’s time to stand up to a government which has become at best, patronizing, and at worst, despotic.

To quote Benjamin Franklin, once more:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Oh, and one more:

"What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?"

If we do not stand up against this violation of our rights and our persons, we are in danger of losing our collective American soul.

Gryphem