This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Since 9/11, I've complied with successive attempts by airport security to combat the most recent threat (shoes, underwear, etc.), having personally surrendered eyelash curlers and nearly empty toothpaste tubes. Now, I've a choice: be viewed naked or be patted down in a manner best described as intimate.
I would be less upset if I could count on agents of the Transportation Security Administration to be professional. Instead, upon seeing my Obama shirt, one agent in Salt Lake remarked "Obama bin Laden." I can't joke about terrorism in the airport, but he did.
Or the recent Philadelphia agent "joking" with fliers, saying he'd found white powder in their bags. Or the Oakland agent who made an example of me by loudly complaining at my polite request to opt-out of the full-body scan.
These are the people I'm going to trust with my body and safety? And I am supposed to submit to this search because I might commit a crime? When and where do these invasions of privacy end?
Yes, we need measures to keep us safe. TSA should find a way that addresses security concerns but makes X-ray images less graphic. In any event, reason and professionalism should be the rule.
Krystin Deschamps
Logan