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*Wouldn't you know it? The second I passed through airport security, my lips got dry. I needed Carmex. Of course, following revelations that 20 Muslim men from Great Britain planned to blow up planes using liquid explosives hidden in carry on luggage regulations now prohibit carrying any liquids or gels passed the security checkpoint or onto the plane.
This is, we are told is for our own safety. Yet, somehow standing in the midst of all the security apparatus with dry lips, I didn't feel safe. I felt irritated to be certain (frustrated and annoyed also come to mind) but I didn't have the sense of well being that security should ideally provide. Security must be more than x-ray machines and men with guns. The sense of security is every bit as important as the fact of security. Alas, the performance art we engage in at the airport provides little of either.
Apparently, I am not alone in my feelings of insecurity. Recently, a group of passengers refused to board a Monarch airlines flight until two men of East Asian appearance dressed in leather coats were removed. More recently, a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai, India was forced to land after the passengers and crew observed 12 men behaving suspiciously. The men were arrested, held and subsequently released.
I can’t blame those passengers. In the years since 9/11, I have become far more aware of who is flying with me and how they behave. However, the response of the passengers on both Monarch and Northwest is not only a result of a heightened sensitivity since 9/11, it is also a response to the security measures we have put in place that breed distrust and insecurity.
During this recent trip, I watched TSA agents frisk an 80-year-old woman. She was so frail that she needed assistance to stand up in order to be searched. Clearly, if elderly crippled women are to be body searched prior to boarding planes, we should be wary of any strapping young East Asian men over dressed for the season.
Yes, we are at war and that entails making sacrifices, but is that what is truly being asked of us? Sacrifice is giving something up for a greater purpose. What is the purpose here except to make us all actors in a bit of street theatre?
This recent trip for instance, I was asked to show photo I.D. three times before getting to the security check point. Just what are they looking for? Fake identification? Airport security wouldn’t know fake ID if it jumped up and bit them. They just need to see that I am who I say I am. On 9/11, 19 Arab men presented ID before passing through metal detectors and murdering 3,000 innocent people. Why then this odd conviction among the TSA that the solution rests in checking I.D. over and over again?
We have been taking our shoes off for the last three years, assured that it was the only way to protect us from plastic explosives stuffed into a pair of Chuck Taylors. Suddenly it is revealed that the detectors were never able to identify explosives in shoes. It also turns out they should have been checking our Gatorade bottles and tubes of Carmex.
And what of the new rules banning liquids from being taken on board planes? Signs and public address announcements warn us about taking liquids onboard the plane. This is the TSA pretending that they are protecting us by fanning the flames of hysteria. How safe are we really if the mocha frappacino I purchase beyond the TSA security checkpoint is a terrorist threat?
Let's face it. If we must fear ladies’ lip-gloss and tubes of Carmex, the TSA isn't going to keep us safe unless they begin doing cavity searches. All the show of security is not keeping us safer. It is merely sowing distrust and suspicion among passengers all the while eroding the public’s confidence in the government’s ability to keep us safe.
Joseph C. Phillips is an actor/writer based in Los Angeles. His column appears regularly in newspapers and and he is a regular commentator on News and Notes with Ed Gordon on NPR. Phillips is the author of "He Talk Like A White Boy" now available wherever books are sold; it can also be purchased online here: http://subnorks.notlong.com. Contact him at: Joseph@josephcphillips.com