What Price Freedom? TSA's Holiday Surprise

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

I was in Narita this weekend and their security process is fast, looks as 
good and endlessly friendly.

Dave

From Capitol Hill Blue

What Price Freedom? TSA's Holiday Surprise By DALE McFEATTERS Nov 10, 2003, 
03:35

There are surprises in life, but two of them are not Thanksgiving and 
Christmas. They come at the same time every year. And it's no surprise that 
Americans travel en masse over those holidays, the Sunday after 
Thanksgiving said to be the year's busiest travel day.

The Transportation Security Administration knows those holidays are coming, 
but it would be comforting to know that the TSA is taking positive measures 
to do something about other than warn people to show up even earlier at the 
airport.

Once TSA had a goal of passengers waiting no more than 10 minutes to pass 
through its security screening. However, TSA officials are preparing to 
tell passengers arrive at the airport an hour and a half before flight 
time. The authority that runs the two major airports in Washington, D.C., 
says two hours is more like it.

And even though Americans are generous gift givers over the holidays, woe 
to the passenger who arrives at security with the gifts already wrapped.

To be fair to TSA, Congress, which insisted on government hired and 
government paid screeners, is now complaining about the cost and demanding 
cuts in TSA's workforce. And the agency's task isn't made easier by jokers 
like Nathaniel Heatwole who smuggled box cutters aboard aircraft just to 
show it can be done, forgetting that TSA's objective is not to stop 
contraband but to stop hijackings _ which it has done.

But enough of sympathy for TSA. The traveling public has problems, too, and 
these take precedence.

Rather than just hope to struggle through the holidays without angering too 
many people, TSA should try to show that the screening process can be 
conducted, in Sen. John McCain's words, with "predictability and dignity," 
and that true security doesn't involve hassling grandmothers and infants 
and ordering passengers to remove their belts and shoes.

The headlines on stories about the agency's appearance before Congress 
tended to run like this: "Holiday Travelers Should Plan on Long Lines, TSA 
Says." That's so government. The wording ought to be more like this: "TSA 
Should Plan on Holiday Travelers So There Are No Long Lines."

As we said, it's not like the holidays are a surprise.

© Copyright 2003 Capitol Hill Blue

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