Do we pay TSA officers enough?

Do we pay TSA officers enough?

Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Jeff McDonald

One question I have concerning full body scans at airports, and the threats they pose to personal liberties, travelers’ dignity, yada-yada-yada … what about the poor schmucks who will have to look at way-too-many images of way-too-many travelers such as myself?

I mean, think about it. And think about some of the people you see standing in line at the airport’s security queue (not YOU, of course – you’re practically perfect in every way – but those other people in line with you). Just how much of them would you want to see? I can’t help but think that prolonged and repeated exposure to the images they’d get, if they scanned someone like me, could lead to psychological blindness for the beholder.

Do we pay our TSA officers enough to run that risk?

Seriously, though, I have no problem with my personal liberties being violated … and I bid adieu to the last shredded remnants of my dignity while I was in college. But along with the current discussion over full body scans comes news that the new generation of scanner software “projects a stylized image — rather than an actual picture — onto a computer screen.”

So maybe we can dispense with the debate, and get on with the scanning?

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Jeff McDonald

There's a saying around here, something like, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" That's me. I'm a 'dang Yankee from back-east' who settled in the Lone Star State after some extended stays in the eastern U.S., and New Mexico. I worked as an archaeologist for a few years before dusting off my second major in English, and embarking on a 25-year career in journalism. Since then, I've embraced the dark side of the force, and now work in PR for a community college in Midland, Texas.