TSA lack of respect

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Lord Acton, 1887

Have you traveled by air recently? Have you been one of the many lucky
enough to be groped by the Transportation Security Administration? Every
week there is a report of some TSA agent at some airport in what I
still like to believe is our great nation clearly overstepping
boundaries, and every subsequent report is worse than the last.

There is one story that has gotten a lot of publicity recently, and
rightly so. Apparently a 95-year-old leukemia patient on her way to an
assisted-living facility required further screening because there was
something “wet” in her diaper. Something wet? In a diaper!? Heavens, no!

Many of the agents employed at Homeland Security airports are not people of great accomplishment, and are not the most intellectually sophisticated people in our society. Yet when given a badge and some authority they allow the power to intoxicate them in believing they can mistreat and humiliate people at their whim.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no oversight of this deplorable behavior and, in fact, some of the supervisors also engage in it. While it is true that we need to be vigilant against terrorist activity, this should not be done at the expense of the freedom and dignity of our citizenry. We should devote as much attention to being respectful to the constituents of our great nation as we do to protecting it.

After all, the TSA goes through this dog-and-pony show to make us feel safe, but how safe can we feel when there exists the possibility that we’ve paid several hundred dollars only to be molested and publicly humiliated by the very same people responsible for our flight safety? Or even worse, you could have been the parent forced to watch as your crying 6-year-old daughter had her nether-regions searched by a government agent fulfilling his duty. Disgusting.