Screeners deserve congratulations for a good job
J.D. Piland
Northern Star
Last week, Michigan Rep. John Dingell was stopped in the Reagan National Airport because his fake hip kept going off in the metal detectors.
OK, nothing that can't be resolved. The "problem" came when the security personnel (known as screeners) asked Dingell to step aside and remove the knee brace he was wearing, his shoes and then his socks (egad!).
But then the worst (as I am sure the politicians think) happened. Dingell and the screeners went to a separate room where Dingell dropped his pants and was scanned with a handheld metal detector.
Dingell cooperated, but later said to his wife, according to an article in the Washington Post, "Woman, do you realize what they made me do?"
My question is this — so?
Just two weeks ago, I was subject to two random searches, once entering the airport and once boarding the plane, at the Sea-Tac International Airport in Seattle. Granted, I didn't have to strip down, but I felt better about flying because they were checking the passengers so thoroughly.
That's how people who are upset about the situation should feel: secure. But no, they are busy whining about rights and whatnot. Have they forgotten about Sept. 11 already?
Security is called security for one reason — to make things secure. If that means strip-searching Dubya or Dick Cheney (my condolences to the one who has to do so), then I am all for it.
The point is that it shouldn't matter what race, religion, etc., you are when it comes to airport security, or anything else for that matter, especially after Sept. 11.
I always follow one rule, which seems that the screeners at Reagan follow as well. The rule goes something like this: unless you bleed a different color, then you are no different than the next person.
The federal government and the Federal Aviation Administration have cracked down and increased security 100-fold at the entrance gates to airports.
There are no more curb-side pick-ups (you only are allowed to park for about a minute), people dressed in army fatigues and guns at their side patrol the airport terminals and finger nail clippers are being confiscated.
Of course, people are throwing fits right and left because of these small, but effective, inconveniences. But I ask anyone to find one person who wouldn't have wanted that inconvenience on Sept. 11.
Also, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was notified of the incident. Mineta was sympathetic to Dingell and apologized for the screeners' actions.
This is a bit disturbing coming from our transportation secretary. Shouldn't he be defending the actions of the screeners since they are, in a sense, his employees?
It seems to this reporter that he was just trying to get on Dingell's good side.
Dingell also felt that there was "some incompetence involved here," as he said in the article.
What? Incompetence?
Everyone should salute the screeners at Reagan National Airport for the job they've done. Not only did they have to search a half-naked, 75-year-old man, but they did it regardless of Dingell's political status.
If that isn't a love for this country, I don't know what is.
This column originally appeared in the Jan. 16, edition of the Northern Star, Northern Illinois University's campus newspaper.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, January 17, 2002
