(CCU Student) If you’re traveling this Holiday season prepare to be “thoroughly” examined. The rules have changed at airports and you no longer have to only take off your belt, shoes, coat, and remove your laptop and toiletries from your bag like before. Now your “privacy” must be investigated as well. There are two ways this may be done. You must either go through a body scanner that show’s the TSA agent a nice picture of what is underneath your clothes or a TSA agent gives you an “intimate” pat down. It’s bad enough when I know that someone is looking at a picture of what my clothes are supposed to be covering, but when I see little children being examined and elderly grandmas being prodded, it irks me.
I can understand that the government is actually trying to protect me and the rest of country, but do they have no other option than to invade our essential right, as citizens, to privacy? When does it go too far? When does safety come before dignity and the individual’s rights separate from the state’s rights? This new safety procedure has gone too far and I will pose this thought, to you my readers, that it has accomplished what the terrorists are trying to do.
How do I mean? People do not want to fly. Grandpas, children and every other traveler is dreading going through security to have their bodies, the most private part of any person, being felt and looked at by any number of people that could have any number of backgrounds, including sex offenders. This does not instill courage in the population; it makes our country look ridiculous. As the most powerful nation in the world, we’ve resorted to this? The terrorists want us to balk at any sign of a threat. They want us to be afraid to fly on our own airlines. We must restore our dignity and stand up against big government tactics.
