Flitting about the country is an interesting exercise in patience. The airlines coupled with TSA (Transportation Security Agency) make travel a very wearing experience. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been on several different airlines and around much of the country. Northwest Airlines, Continental, Delta, Sky West, and United have all carried my body and stuff to Dallas, Atlanta, San Jose, and Idaho in the past couple of weeks. Amazingly enough, in the end everything got where it was supposed to be and home again.

In that course of events, I’ve been in big airports (Atlanta), mid-sized airports (Colorado Springs) and very small airports (Pocatello, Idaho). Security at these airports continually finds ways to amaze me. Some thoughts:

• I went through the Colorado Springs Airport security when it was very busy and again when I was almost the only passenger in the area. I zipped right through on the busy time of the day trip. However, when I came through a few days later at a very slow time of the day, TSA took the opportunity to go through everything — and do it several times. I sure hope they were training folks. It took a long time and a lot of patience.
• The security setup in Atlanta is the one seen most often on TV as CNN has their offices in Atlanta. Everything is set up for masses of folks, yet it is the slowest security of any place I’ve been. From the time that I’ve got my stuff ready to go into the scanning machine and I’m standing in front of the metal detector until I’m through and have collected my things takes at least twice as long as at every other big airport. There are simply too many chiefs and not enough indians for that operation.
• At Pocatello, security is only open just before flights depart. The rest of the time the door into the concourse is closed and locked. A good system in my opinion. Their method for handling checked luggage is also very efficient. After checking in at the counter and getting the bag tagged, you take it to the TSA counter and turn the bag over to them. The bag gets scanned and then goes down the chute to be loaded on the airplane. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever had my small suitcase more thoroughly examined than in the Pocatello airport. The security guy took everything out, and then took every thing out of the toilet bag, checked all the pockets, and thoroughly examined everything. It wasn’t just me, either. He did the same thing to everyone boarding the flight.
• Suspenders are an interesting item. I take everything out of my pockets, take off my watch and rings. I take off my glasses. I take off my shoes. The only thing metal left on my body anywhere are the suspender adjustment devices, the zipper in my pants (sometimes this is plastic), and the clasp on my pants. Some places let me take my arms out of the suspenders and let the suspenders dangle. Others won’t let that happen. Most of the time if the suspenders are dangling, the alarm doesn’t go off. It always goes off if I have to wear them normally. Occasionally even dangling suspenders sets of the alarm, but then only after I’m completely through the metal detector and have taken a step away. It is just crazy. This shouldn’t set off the detectors!

The government is going to test a smart card this summer. It will have on the card some biometrics so they can verify that the person holding the card is physically the person the card was issued to. Getting the card will require having a background check made and coming up clean. Some folks don’t like this idea at all. Personally, I think those folks are all screwed up. Airport security is about the only place where normal people are routinely treated as though they are criminals, almost having to prove that they are not. But since they don’t know what they’re looking for, they have to subject everyone to the same scrutiny. Some civil libertarians think that we’re giving up our rights to privacy if we allow the government to make these background checks. That is all unadultrated baloney. The government already knows literally everything about me. Any law-abiding citizen is in the same category. Issue the cards — let normal law-abiding citizens proceed quickly through security and save TSA’s energy for the few who are not willing to subject themselves to a prior background check. I can hardly wait until the government gets this program implemented and rolled out. Bring it On!