I’ve been traveling a lot lately. A lot. So – I’ve gotten to experience airport security in many different forms throughout our beautiful country. Today’s experience in Boston reinforced how silly this whole thing has become.
Amy and I are heading to Washington DC. The line is short as this part of Logan is pretty empty today (not many US Air flights mid-afternoon on a Saturday.) As a result, the TSA guy has come up with a few new rules and he’s repeating them as steadily as your favorite metronome. “Put your shoes, liquids, and bags directly on the conveyer belt. Do not put them in the plastic trays. If you have a drink, you can you drink it on that side security but you must throw it away before you come through. Put your id’s away.” Over and over again. Instead of getting through security in three minutes, it took about ten as everyone forgot to take the purses, their liquids, or their shoes out of the little plastic trays.
All I could think of was my Acela train trip from Baltimore to NY. We bought a ticket in the train station, zero security, bought some drinks in the train station, and walked on the train. There were more people on it than on the airplane I was on from NY to Boston on Thursday night. Our ending point was Penn Station. No security – go figure.
I also thought about John Corzine’s (the NJ Governor’s) horrible car crash yesterday and how easy it is to either have a random (or deliberate) car accident.
Our government is spending an incredible amount on airport security and I’ve yet to feel fundamentally more secure than I used to. Maybe it’s just me and I’m cynical, but this pet peeve gnaws at me.