Remember "don't touch my junk?"
The Sunday paper this week caught my attention with a tiny blurb about those controversial body scanning machines that are being used in many airports: No more privacy concerns--they are going to be removed by June.
I was so gratified (not necessarily grateful) to read that the era of the full body pat-down will soon be over for me. I don't have any metal parts or a pacemaker, and will soon pass quietly through the regular old scanners. The airports will have to remove the body scanners because the machines could not be altered to show a more generic image of the body outlines of the naked-under-clothes body.
I was so annoyed by this new technology (backscatter body scanning) that I have requested pat-downs from the very beginning--and I've come to enjoy them. It's a good touch. Now if had a large package of "junk" I might feel differently!! I know a few people who have extremely sensitive feet and they might also have a problem, because the TSA agents actually pat the bottoms of your stocking feet as you sit in a chair. I can imagine a certain daughter of mine losing control and kicking the gloved pat-down lady in the face.
I would probably have survived the extra bit of radiation just fine. It is thought to be minuscule--far less radiation than from the cosmic rays you experience as you are flying high in the airplane, that is, flying at high altitudes.
But I have had so few protests to participate in (I never got it out of my system as a late 60's college student on a conservative campus), and this one was easy. At the Orlando airport I have been able to avoid the super-exposure scanner by simply picking the right line.
My annoyance is with the whole system, as they arbitrarily pat down granny or a child in a wheelchair. Some of the practices are abusive and some are just ridiculous. I have accommodated the 2 oz. bottles and stocking feet--I take fresh socks (and a ziplock for the dirty ones) along in my purse to put on when I get through security! (Not that I am a germ freak or anything--it is just gross on the airport floor).But I will not use their stupid body scan machines.
I don't actually mind that much if some technician observes the gray-scale contours of my aging body. This is just a personal protest--a small statement that I can make. But I have no fear that there are any images "out there" of me that have been saved by some pervert who enjoys scanner porn! (My scans would be more suitable for target practice than for porn!).
However, I would like to believe that my participation in this small protest has somehow helped to facilitate the decision to terminate the use of these machines...
My gratification comes from that perceived success: No more body scans. No more vertical strip-searches. No more pat-downs. No more extra radiation.
More on scanning, radiation and flying:
I heard a comedian on television yesterday who objected to the reclining seat. He claimed:
You are going to sleep in their face (or on their laptop)--if you recline in your airplane seat.
Is it rude to recline? Is it a right that comes with a paid seat? Do you recline?
"Are you going to sleep in my face?" Would you ask that of the person in the seat in front of you?
Some scanner radiation facts:
mrem - the unit of measure for radiation levels (haven't tried it yet on WORDS)
backscatter - reflection of waves, particles, or signals back to the direction from which they came. (What a cool word.) It also references a kind of email scamming technique.
A thought:
If the scanning machines cannot be re-purposed for use in, say, jails--they are once again, an example of huge government waste.
Finally:
I am sorry that I cannot include photos in this post--those outlines of bodies and privates are a form of, well, I said it--backscatter porn!
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