Turbans, Air Travel, and The Illusion of Safety
Today the TSA announced a reversal of a policy that now places turbans in the same category as other bulky clothing, and provides alternate screening for those who do not want to remove their turban during the security screening process. In their quest for fairness, they will also offer additional screening options to those who wish to leave their giant cowboy hat on.
A well-struck victory for the American Cowboy, who didn’t care about taking off his hat in the first place, and in the second place will continue to do so to avoid having to stand in yet another line to wait for additional screening, and in the third place is as unexcited as the rest of us knowing now that turbans will go back to being as poorly screened as before.
The declaration is a reversal of a policy begun in August because of what was termed a “credible specific threat.” I am unclear how the space in the turban starts and then ceases to be a threat. To be sure, any area not thoroughly screened represents a threat.
Let’s just call this what it is: the actual endangerment of the vast majority to avoid the potential perception of offending or picking on a very small minority. Even worse, political correctness says the TSA can’t single out turban-wearers, so they’re throwing cowboy hats into the mix to make sure this is about all bulky head garments with the ability to store contraband, and not about any specific religion. Those crafty PR geniuses at the TSA leave me flatfooted with their prowess. Uh huh.
Why doesn’t someone just do the right thing and tell these guys how it’s going to be: Dear Mr. Turban Wearer, I am sorry removing your turban is inconvenient for you because it is a pain in the ass to re-tie or offensive to your religion or whatever. But no one is forcing you to fly… so whatever the reason, if you don’t want to remove it for screening, fine… the car rental counter is right over there. Otherwise, you have to live by the rules of an orderly society. I don’t like taking my shoes off and sharing a nasty unsanitary floor with 5000 other barefoot people. This in an age where staph infection spreads easily and has become so resistant to treatment, it represents a genuine safety concern. But you know what, I know where the car rental counter is too, and I would rather fly, so off come the shoes.
Another bit of genius from the wunderkinds at the TSA is banning liquids in quantities of three ounces or more. This way, there is no hope you can get enough shampoo for four-day business trip, but plenty of hope remains that someone could still smuggle a dangerous chemical in an eye drop bottle and the xray won’t detect it. Or anyone with a pair of loose jeans could smuggle a significant quantity of liquid in their underwear or sock and shuffle through the metal detector unnoticed. Or like I did: just leave a bottle of water in their laptop bag when flying from Barcelona to Bristol, England, and have it go unnoticed by the security screener who was fighting a post lunchtime food coma.
The bottom line is this: Airline security at the passenger line, beyond the most basic screening for a gun or bomb, is a joke. It is window dressing to make the less than 20% of the population who travel only occasionally feel safer. The 80%+ of us who travel frequently realize that we’re never really safe, and we’re never going to be. It is doubly true so long as stupid games of political correctness are played to avoid offending this religious group or that one.
But it’s not all gloom and doom. 9/11 taught us all a very painful but valuable lesson: That the purpose of hijacking has changed from grinding an axe to using the plane as a weapon, killing everyone on board in the process.
So now, a hijacker waving a knife and demanding cooperation amounts to a very strange threat… which is why I doubt we will ever see a force-based hijacking again… even if the hijacker appears to be strapped in explosives (remember, the plane will likely be shot down if there is even a whiff it will be used in another 9/11-style attack… so again, strange threat). And if a hijacker starts up with only a box cutter, it would be a far better bet that he be the only one not to make it off the plane alive.
Which leads to the second point: on the plane, the cockpit door is and should always stay locked, and the crew in control of the flight deck. That means back in coach, it’s up to us what happens next.
We’ve seen a handful of examples where extremely unruly passengers have been subdued by fellow travelers. We all own the responsibility of our freedom. Whether it’s a guy freaking out and punching a flight attendant (and for those of you who have stayed in your seat while this has happened: what the hell are you thinking you f-ing coward?), or someone popping off a turban (ok, or a cowboy hat) and wielding contraband, or someone trying to light his shoe, the task of keeping you safe in the skies is mostly yours. And we as citizens should relish this responsibility, not shy away from it.
