What Has Happened to Common Sense in America?

I'm not sure what it is, but there's got to be a better way than what we're experiencing with the TSA security issues right now.  It's got everyone on edge from the travelers to the TSA workers themselves.

Even the TSA hates it:

'It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh,' one told the BoardingArea blog. 'Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!'  Another said he had a huge problem dealing with a 'large number of passengers... daily that have a problem understanding what personal hygiene is.'

One TSA agent said in the same article that a passenger accused him of "liking" the groping or else he would work for the TSA.

 

Of course the TSA doesn't like what they're being required to do.  

Marc Thiessen wrote a common sense piece yesterday:

In the coming days, millions of Americans will travel to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. May I pose a novel idea? As we go through the airport screening line, let’s stop and say “thanks” to the men and women of the TSA who give up time with their families during the holidays to keep us safe from terror.

In the past few weeks, these patriots have been compared with Big Brother and accused of sexual assault. They’ve suffered the same kinds of public indignities the Left has heaped on the men and women of the CIA — being accused of engaging un-American and unlawful behavior for doing the difficult and unpleasant work of protecting the country. They deserve better.

It all brings us back to the issue of profiling which actually goes further than just looking at a person and saying, "Hmmmm, that person looks like a terrorist."  Profiling also includes, as Bobby Jindal said Sunday, using the information we have.  Look for the patterns.  But, as Thiessen points out, that's not the only way to go:

Some say we should use profiling instead. Profiling should absolutely be a key part of our layered defenses against terrorist attack. But profiling alone is insufficient, and is not as easy as it may seem. Just as the terrorists adapt their tactics to get around our screening procedures, they will adapt to get around profiling. We know this because Khalid Shiekh Mohammed told us so. 

Our approach to airport security needs to employ some common sense, not just from the TSA, but from travelers, too.  At the very least, it helps nothing to heap abuse on the TSA any more than it helps to heap abuse on a police officer on the street who is just doing his job.

Just remember 9/11 and how indignant and furious you were that day when we were attacked.  Remember last Christmas when you were furious that a terrorist walked onto a plane with a bomb in his underwear.  Complacency will surely lead to another attack.

I don't know a whole lot about El Air, but it seems they do a pretty good job.  We've got to find a better, more common sense approach than degrading Americans OR vilifying the TSA. 

(H/T:  Memeorandum)