Dear Airport Security

Yeah, this is another post from the holiday week, but this needs to be said. While traveling to Atlanta last week, I thought my hindrances would be minor since I was flying domestically. That wasn't the case. When coming through the metal detectors and overall TSA hype, both my mother and I had to toss bottles of lotion and cologne that were deemed 'too big' to carry on. Then when returning, we had a very feisty TSA agent try to disrespect my father, among other people traveling, with a snippy attitude and an unwarranted pat-down. But that's neither here nor there. What really irked me was the story above.

Airport security has always been a hassle. There is no debate that that hassle contributes to our security and safety in the air. However, at what cost does this come?? Are these methods of security really that effective? I've seen a young child frisked for having a bottle of 'suspicious fluids', a teenager yelled at for forgetting to take their shoes off in a timely fashion, and my father frisked for forgetting to remove his wallet (in fear that someone would steal it). Those are all minuscule happenings on the radar of airport security that get blown way out of proportion. Yet and still, some attempted Nigerian terrorist can enter a plane (and pass security) with a bomb strapped to him?? TSA, what's the deal? Such oversight is indicative of the failures of this system. If someone can thwart you guys that easily, I shudder to think what could have happened had the suspect been more efficient in his undertaking. I understand the heightened level of anxiety during high-travel times. I understand that everyone is privy to the whims of the TSA. Hell, I even understand that sometimes suspicion overrides common sense. But where do we draw the line between gross invasion and 'security'?

Something must be done to rectify the system of checks and balances that airport security goes through. There has to be an wide, yet thin line between the terrorists and the unseemly civilians that use the air for good purposes every day. The fact that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was on America's radar, but was still allowed to fly as everyone else shows how faulty the system is. Whether it was gross oversight or simply naivete that allowed this incident, there is no doubt in my mind that we are still not safe, nor will we be for the foreseeable future. It's not a question of jostling or harassment, but of incompetence and ignorance. I'm glad that no incident took place, but can't help but give you guys the side-eye every time I fly now. For all our sakes, I hope whoever frisked my father and whoever let Mutallab on that plane are now in the same class, re-learning their modus operandi. Lord knows it might not be such a Merry Christmas next year if the same thing is allowed to happen again...