Armstrong Airport

What is more important to you, safety or the appearance of safety?

Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber," was busted trying to ignite C4 in his sneakers with a box of matches and now, people going through airport security must take off their shoes. Nevermind that it is impossible to ignite C4 with fire (you need an electric charge). The point, I think, is not to make you TRULY safer, but to make you FEEL safer through an elaborate show of "security checks." At the same time, I have left luggage unattended at three major airports (Newark, New York-JFK and New Orleans-Armstrong) just as a test and was never accosted by security at all. I contrast that experience with my time living in London where walking 20 feet away from my luggage was enough for British cops to question me. So then, are the "security" measures put in place at our airports truly in place to keep us safer or to just make us FEEL safer?

Public Comments

1. That's been my point for the past seven years. We're not safer. We're really not. The President has instituted all these new policies and procedures (PATRIOT Act, for instance) which make it SEEM like we're safer, but in truth, when you don't know where to look for the next threat (which, clearly, we do not since no one saw 9/11 coming), none of these things can REALLY be counted on to protect us.
2. Both. If we didn't have anything at all would that be safe? Would you feel safe? If this was the case I don't think I would ever want to fly.
3. Surely. With money back guarantee? No hear-say ! Like the dead Mummy. Look at the mess of the dead Mummy with just hear-say. Luke 8.10, 17 What do you think?
4. In US we only have a false sense of security at most airports including JFK. For some reasons in JFK security people love to search 70+ years old handicapped individuals in a wheel chairs. I often fly thru this airport and sometimes next in line to me are very suspicious people with middle eastern faces, but security never ever selected them for more search, they always choose American handicapped people in wheel chairs.
5. Have there been any attacks since 9/11? The proof is in the pudding.
6. Who wants to go through life with fear of harm and death on their minds. But then, most people who are aware of danger know they can never predict when something will happen. It depends when and where a person feels less secure. When most people go through airports and see strict security measures they may momentarily think they are safe but they can't say they don't wonder in the back of their minds if they are truly safe. When going through the terminal up to and after boarding the plane don't people look at certain characteristic in other people and/or in their mind what they may deem as suspicious behavior and wonder if a terrorist got through the cracks. I think people are given the impression that their airports are safe, and they want to believe they are more secure now than ever, which they are, but they are always on guard to unexpected acts of terrorism which they know are unpredictable. So to answer your question, it's both.