Don't Fear the Reaper... er... the Body Scanner...

Body Scanner Images

Watching the news this morning, I'm just stunned by the public reactions to body scanners.  Body scanners, primarily at airports, are the newest security measure put in place to make air travel safer.  A person is asked to stand on a plate that is marked where to put their feet, while a TSA agent checks a monitor that displays an image of what is under the person's clothing.  It's a variable x-ray machine that can see as thin as just under the clothing to clear down to the bone.

People are feeling violated by this display, they are feeling objectified.  But should they?  If anything, they should be feeling sorry for the TSA agent that is required to sit there for 8 hours a day monitoring these images.  Who really thinks that these poor people are getting some thrill from looking at them?  I assure you, they aren't.  If anything, the traveler is hurting the TSA agent.

I spent just a few years working as a nursing aid in a hospital environment; I can tell you first hand that after seeing so many bodies, partially or fully disrobed, diminishes your visual stimulation.  Basically, you are numbed to it, it means nothing to you.  You get to the point where you look at a body and you immediately go to what you're trained to look for.  If you're in the medical field, you automatically look for the bumps, bruises, and defects you're trained to look for.  I'm sure TSA agents immediately look for hidden items, despite themselves.  Professional hazards, you're job goes home with you.  If anybody should feel violated by body scanners, it should be the spouses and sexual partners of these agents.  When they're tying to be sexy, they know that their agent-partner is automatically looking for a weapon.

Are You Losing Your Rights?



Short answer, NO.  Long answer?  Stop and think a minute, how is boarding a plane a 'right'?  One person I debated this with said that since the TSA is government funded with HIS tax money, he had the right to use the service.  Well, for starters, he's mixing up the TSA and the airline.  TSA is the security regulator for the airline, a private industry.  Secondly, even tax-paid-for amenities have rules and regulations we have to abide by when using them.

Example:  State highways.  Sure, you have the right to use them, as long as you abide by the rules.  You are expected to drive between the marked lines, to understand and acknowledge the lines that mean you're in a no passing zone, and stay within the marked speed limits.  If you don't, you will be fined.  If you do it too often, you will lose your driving privileges.  We accept these rules because they are for our own safety, they prevent millions of people from dying on the roadways all of the time.  Occasionally, when these rules are broken, people do die.  We know, understand, and accept this.

I heard on the news that they are trying to organize a "national opt-out day" on November 24th, where passengers intend to opt-out of the scanners in favor of the pat down.  I wonder how many are going to end up missing their flights because they wanted to cause a fuss.  I don't see flights waiting on people that don't arrive early enough to get through the boarding process in a timely manner.  A wiser (and cheaper) protest would be a "national take a train instead day".  The privileges of flying are over-rated anyway, right?





To The Pilots and Crew

Sully

 

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger  was on the news this morning talking about how pilots and crew should be exempt from these screenings because of their background checks and the threat of radiation exposure because of their frequency of boarding planes and their exposure to radiation while in flight.  

I can fully understand these concerns, but repeated pat downs are not out of the question.  They feel the background checks should make them special, but that barrier was broken when JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater verbally assaulted his passengers, activated the emergency slide, grabbed a beer, and ran off.  The elite barrier was broken when US Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Hasan went on a shooting spree after serving 21 years in the military. 

We've learned that nobody is exempt from a breakdown, a bad day, or from losing faith in their career of choice.  More frequent mental health screenings might be warranted instead, but reality tells us that the pat downs are cheaper for the airlines.  Pilots and crew may not be happy with the scanners or the pat downs (which people having to do them daily also develop an immunity to.  It's no thrill to touch people all of the time.), but I don't hear a reasonable alternative being offered.  The unions could offer to pay for more frequent, in-depth, psychological evaluations as an alternative.  Simply demanding no checks without an alternative just isn't reasonable.

What do you think?