Typhoon1244
Member in Good Standing
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2002
- Posts
- 3,078
NOTE: this turned into a horribly long rant. Please bear with me. Perhaps I need sleep...
I can't say much about the new T.S.A. screeners because I've had almost no experience with them. The ones I've seen--trainees mostly--certainly seemed more alert, friendly, and intelligent than screeners I have encountered in the past.
In the "I can't take it anymore (security)" thread, somebody spoke of the "death of outrage" in this country. This has concerned me too. Americans didn't react to the attacks on U.S.S. Cole and the W.T.C. the way they did to the attacks on U.S.S. Maine and Pearl Harbor. Why is that? (Yeah, I know Maine probably blew up on her own...that's not my point.)
...I have now typed and deleted my next paragraph three times. I wanted to talk about disappointment in our intelligence agencies. Many of us felt the FBI and CIA should be cleaned out, just like the command in Hawaii was shaken up in '41. That didn't happen. Instead, George W. Bush patted the directors of both agencies on the back, told them what a good job they were doing.
I wanted to talk about an irrational but understandable American hatred--post 9/11--for all things middle eastern. I wanted to talk about how we were all urged not to be angry at Muslims because many of our neighbors are peaceful practitioners of that faith. We even changed the plots of new movies so no one's feelings would be hurt. I was going to suggest that removing anyone who fell into the same demographic as the September hijackers should have been immediately removed from positions of authority (airport security, federal government, transportation, law enforcement, etc.). Just like what was done to Japanese Americans after 12/7.
And in the same instant I come to that conclusion, I know it's wrong. It goes against everything this nation is supposed to stand for. It would be unfair. It would tear this nation apart.
Then I considered the question...how do you absolutely prevent this from happening again? Absolutely? You cauterize Islam. Remove it from the face of the planet. We have the weapons, and we have the means to deliver them.
Insane.
That would violate every single principle...no, it's worse than that. There aren't words to describe what a horrible act that would be. If we chose, in an instant of mania, to take that step, there probably would be a lot fewer terrorist incidents. But would it be a better world? No.
(Here's the scary part: there are those out there who would say "yes.")
My point? My point is that I don't have the answers to such questions. I get a certain animal pleasure from the image of hundreds of BGM-109's streaking into the middle east to avenge the victims of 9/11. But I also recognize that if our government didn't feel the need to involve itself in the affairs of foreign governments so often...9/11 might not have happened. Sometimes, when you step in an ant hill, you get bitten.
I do know this: eight of my fellow pilots were the first victims of last year's attacks. The treatment that we line pilots often receive from airport security--often by the countrymen of the attackers!--is an insult to the memory of those eight pilots, to say nothing of our own integrity. I don't condone what was done to Japanese Americans in 1941...but how would American soldiers, sailors, and Marines have felt during the ensuing war if everytime they traveled, they were carefully scrutinized by countrymen of the enemy? I actually heard--on the D.F.W. airport employee train as it accelerated out of terminal E--a group of Argenbright screeners gloating about making pilots squirm.
You tell me: how should I feel about that? Should I assume a blank expression and say "yes ma'am, no sir?" Am I allowed to be mad as h_ll?
Suppose it had been my wife who'd been forced to drink her own breast milk. Should I shrug and say, "that's war?"
Should we wait until we're all used to being routinely humiliated, surrender whatever dignity we have left to the gods of security? Or should we tell our leaders "this is not working," and demand that they fix it? Should organizations like ALPA stop masterbating about guns in the cockpit and start getting serious about intelligent airport security? Is it time for that yet?
There has to be a better way!
[These are not reasoned opinions. These are my gut feelings about 9/11 and airport security. I'm hoping to find some kind of relief by spilling them before all of you. So have at me...tell me what you think...]
I can't say much about the new T.S.A. screeners because I've had almost no experience with them. The ones I've seen--trainees mostly--certainly seemed more alert, friendly, and intelligent than screeners I have encountered in the past.
In the "I can't take it anymore (security)" thread, somebody spoke of the "death of outrage" in this country. This has concerned me too. Americans didn't react to the attacks on U.S.S. Cole and the W.T.C. the way they did to the attacks on U.S.S. Maine and Pearl Harbor. Why is that? (Yeah, I know Maine probably blew up on her own...that's not my point.)
...I have now typed and deleted my next paragraph three times. I wanted to talk about disappointment in our intelligence agencies. Many of us felt the FBI and CIA should be cleaned out, just like the command in Hawaii was shaken up in '41. That didn't happen. Instead, George W. Bush patted the directors of both agencies on the back, told them what a good job they were doing.
I wanted to talk about an irrational but understandable American hatred--post 9/11--for all things middle eastern. I wanted to talk about how we were all urged not to be angry at Muslims because many of our neighbors are peaceful practitioners of that faith. We even changed the plots of new movies so no one's feelings would be hurt. I was going to suggest that removing anyone who fell into the same demographic as the September hijackers should have been immediately removed from positions of authority (airport security, federal government, transportation, law enforcement, etc.). Just like what was done to Japanese Americans after 12/7.
And in the same instant I come to that conclusion, I know it's wrong. It goes against everything this nation is supposed to stand for. It would be unfair. It would tear this nation apart.
Then I considered the question...how do you absolutely prevent this from happening again? Absolutely? You cauterize Islam. Remove it from the face of the planet. We have the weapons, and we have the means to deliver them.
Insane.
That would violate every single principle...no, it's worse than that. There aren't words to describe what a horrible act that would be. If we chose, in an instant of mania, to take that step, there probably would be a lot fewer terrorist incidents. But would it be a better world? No.
(Here's the scary part: there are those out there who would say "yes.")
My point? My point is that I don't have the answers to such questions. I get a certain animal pleasure from the image of hundreds of BGM-109's streaking into the middle east to avenge the victims of 9/11. But I also recognize that if our government didn't feel the need to involve itself in the affairs of foreign governments so often...9/11 might not have happened. Sometimes, when you step in an ant hill, you get bitten.
I do know this: eight of my fellow pilots were the first victims of last year's attacks. The treatment that we line pilots often receive from airport security--often by the countrymen of the attackers!--is an insult to the memory of those eight pilots, to say nothing of our own integrity. I don't condone what was done to Japanese Americans in 1941...but how would American soldiers, sailors, and Marines have felt during the ensuing war if everytime they traveled, they were carefully scrutinized by countrymen of the enemy? I actually heard--on the D.F.W. airport employee train as it accelerated out of terminal E--a group of Argenbright screeners gloating about making pilots squirm.
You tell me: how should I feel about that? Should I assume a blank expression and say "yes ma'am, no sir?" Am I allowed to be mad as h_ll?
Suppose it had been my wife who'd been forced to drink her own breast milk. Should I shrug and say, "that's war?"
Should we wait until we're all used to being routinely humiliated, surrender whatever dignity we have left to the gods of security? Or should we tell our leaders "this is not working," and demand that they fix it? Should organizations like ALPA stop masterbating about guns in the cockpit and start getting serious about intelligent airport security? Is it time for that yet?
There has to be a better way!
[These are not reasoned opinions. These are my gut feelings about 9/11 and airport security. I'm hoping to find some kind of relief by spilling them before all of you. So have at me...tell me what you think...]
