It appears that, at least in this particular instance, America refused to rally around the dumb asses.
That was not a sure bet a couple days ago.
I guess America was more interested in getting to Grandmaw's house than getting Grandmaw exempted from airport security screenings.
You know it seemed kind of ironic to me that some Americans wanted to engage in a selfish act of terrorism as a response to America's response to the terrorist threat. An attempt to hold America's holidays hostage for no other reason than you don't want to do what everybody knows must be done is as vile an act as any al Queada ever attempted. If you have ever just barely caught the last flight out of town by the skin of your ass then you will appreciate the stupidity of staging a pointless stunt to slow the system down by even a few seconds.
America is at its best when it gets in line, waits its turn and endures petty and perhaps unnecessary hardships with a spirit of shared suffering and common interest. The answer is not always a protest. Sometimes the best response to a hardship is to turn to the person next to you in line, strike up a conversation and spend an hour making friends with someone, that in all likelihood, you will never see again in life. But as the memory of your minor hardship fades the memory of your new found friendship remains as a souvenir of surviving yet another petty slight.
You don't have to get special treatment to be exceptional.
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Actually they were quite successful in provoking debate over invasive security measures that don't actually stop terrorism but merely make the public more willing to give up personal freedom.
ReplyDeleteGot no problem with debate. I believe it is widely acknowledged that the TSA security protocols are fairly random. And the powers that be have clearly indicated that they are open to evaluating their protocols and making appropriate adjustments. But how does threatening to slow the system down to a grinding halt such that people don't make it to Grandmother's house in time for Thanksgiving dinner help anything or anyone?
ReplyDeleteBut the point was never to actually slow things down - that was the media's idea. As the guy pointed out on his website, most airports don't even have the machines yet so would be completely unaffected anyway.
ReplyDeleteHowever before the opt out campaign the TSA kept promoting their bogus stat of 80% support our new measures (which hadn't been explained). Now more than half of Americans disapprove and the TSA is being forced to re-evaluate their ineffective yet invasive procedures - something they earlier claimed would not happen.
Of course it's still a longshot, considering the reason they bought these machines in the first place is because of former government officials promoting them for the company.
Regardless of whether or not slowing things down was the point, that would have been the result.
ReplyDeleteFar be it from me to defend the TSA, but the limited number of times I fly, I have always found the TSA personnel to be professional, courteous, proactive and as human as their jobs allow them to be. Part of what makes the system work is the randomness of it all. Its kind of hard to penetrate the security barrier when you cannot reliably predict the daily ineptitude factor of the government screeners.
But why stop with the TSA why not protest those hideous photographs they make us endure in order to obtain a driver license. We could all go down to the DMV and have a big rally that causes a few teenagers to miss their driving test and then what? You still have to make a photo if you want a driver license.
Same thing with the TSA. So just get in line and STFU, we all got places we need to be.
No matter how you slice it this is still turkey carved whole from the bird.