This is an idea that shows thinking way outside the box, and I’m talking a distance of several light-years. And it comes straight from the “Gee, I wish I’d thought of that” department. The e-mail came to me Nov. 23, in the middle of all the controversy about Transportation Security Administration pat-down searches at the nation’s airports. We have one John Tyner of San Diego to thank for this brouhaha.
Around mid-November, he attempted to board a flight to South Dakota when he refused to go through the body scanning machines. So TSA personnel took him aside for a pat down, but Tyner balked when he learned the pat down included a crotch grope.
I’ll have to side with Tyner about the pat down. Maybe I’m funny that way, but I draw the line at my crotch. As in, “take your hands away from my crotch, back up slowly, and no one will get hurt.”
The body scanners reveal a person in the raw. Tyner wasn’t having it, but, if TSA personnel want to risk seeing my naked body, then I figure they’re the ones being punished, not me.
But that Nov. 23 e-mail should end any worries Tyner or I may have. The subject heading read, “Brilliant idea for airport scanners.” Below is the body of the e-mail:
“Here’s a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports. All we need to do is develop a booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have hidden on or in your body. The explosion would be contained within the sealed booth.
“This would be a win-win for everyone. There would be none of this (stuff) about racial profiling and the device would eliminate long and expensive trials. I can see it now: You’re in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the public address system: ‘Attention, standby passengers! We now have a seat available on flight number. …'”
Now that’s the type of anti-terrorism and anti-terrorist mechanism I can appreciate. Skeptics will say that no such technology exist; I would answer that we can get government scientists to work on it right away, and have Congress give tax incentives to scientists in the private sector to do the same.
Technology is moving at such a rapid pace that new things are being invented, created or developed, it seems, almost daily. Now is a chance for something to be developed that will do all of us some good.
Most of the technological advancement is in the realm of communications. Bought a new cell phone lately? Might be obsolete in five years. Hankering for a new computer? Better buy it before it’s yesterday’s news.
Some people no longer send e-mails. They either write on your Facebook wall or they “Tweet.” (Sitting down, writing someone a letter, putting it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it and mailing it is out of the question.) I don’t object to technological advances, but most these days seem to be geared to make things not better, but cuter. I hate cute.
You know what’s cute? Kittens. Puppies. My grandkids. Very little else.
A booth that will detonate a concealed bomb wouldn’t fall into the category of cute. It would fall into the category of being downright necessary. And the e-mailer was right: It would save us the expense of trying and imprisoning terrorists. Making terrorists prisoners is fine and dandy.
Making them dead is even better.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
