Analog Sff, June 2011
Analog Sff, June 2011
“The agonies of autumnal holiday travel may seem irrelevant in midsummer, but they're anything but. The same problems seem more than likely to recur, quite possibly in more severe form, the next time around; and now is the time to do something about them—if anybody really wants to. In any case, the actions and reactions of both sides—government and protesters—provide an instructive illustration of a larger and more general danger.And it just may be relevant to another holiday that does occur in ...summer.The first concern facing travelers on the day before Thanksgiving was the array of unprecedentedly intrusive security procedures that had been recently instituted at airports, which many travelers would be experiencing for the first time. The second was the threat—much heralded and advocated on the internet, though not much happened in reality—of massive protests against those security measures.The new antiterrorist procedures, in case you've been hanging out with Rip Van Winkle and missed hearing about them, involve (a) full-body scanners, which use one of two types of low-level radiation to show inspectors a detailed image of a passenger's body unobscured by clothing, and (b) full-body patdowns, at a level previously regarded as appropriate only for medical exams or couples who know each other very well, as an alternative for passengers who object strongly to (a).No third alternative was offered, except, “If you don't like it, don't fly."Not surprisingly, many people did object strongly to both (a) and (b), saying that the Transportation Security Administration had gone too far—especially after watching widely circulated online video clips of things like TSA agents tormenting three-year-olds lest their teddy bears turn out to be bombs.MoreLess
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