SkimIt
Young Voters Speak Out: Each day, RR.com will spotlight politically minded youth writers from throughout the U.S. speaking their minds on Election 2012. First-time voters, student journalists and new graduates will debate the Obama vs. Romney race to the White House. Young Democrats, Republicans and ‘Undecided’ Americans are eager to play politics and choose the next Commander & Chief.
Read K. Heidi Smucker's thoughts from a left-leaning perspective:
Full Body Outrage
I remember the first time I saw one of the full body scanners at an airport. It was around six months after they had first been introduced into a number of security checkpoints and the ensuing debate over their invasiveness had erupted. Walking through Philadelphia International Airport to find my terminal I spotted the scanner at a checkpoint and paused for a moment to look. The whole process seemed relatively quick and the people shuffling through the scanner weren't protesting or complaining, just following the TSA officer's instructions. There wasn't a scanner when I went through security at my terminal and I didn't get the chance to experience it myself but honestly I wouldn't have minded.
A Fleeting Thought
Sitting on the plane waiting for departure I let my mind wander and I began questioning why there had been such a big fuss over the scanners. Even though it had been ten years since the September 11 attacks I was fairly certain that the thought of terrorist attacks crosses the mind of almost every person flying in the United States. I consider myself to be a rational person but it doesn't mean I don't think about it every time I board a flight. But despite that fleeting thought every time I step into an airport I never feel truly threatened because in those ten years I am one hundred percent certain of the fact that I am safer and more protected against any possible threat of terrorism.
One might point to the failed terrorist attempts to show that the threat has not receded but gotten worse. To that I would say, did the underwear bomber blow up his plane? Or did the guy in Times Square detonate the bomb in his van? These attempts are exactly that, an attempt; it didn't work. The security measures put in place over the last eleven years have been instrumental in making this country safer. They're certainly not perfect because human error is impossible to avoid but I'd love to see even someone with the genius of Einstein and inventiveness of MacGyver get a bomb through a full body scanner.
Safe and Sound
So when I fly or walk the streets of New York the thought of terrorism is an afterthought, if it even crosses my mind in the first place. Osama Bin Laden is dead, the United States' involvement in the Middle East is lessening, and there are successful preventative security measures in place. Therefore I sleep just fine at night.
