Surprisingly, my air travel experience was great today… I left work around 2pm, figuring that with my flight being at 4:30p I would have plenty of time to stand in line. I got to the gate a bit after 2:30, and got on a seemingly HUGE line at the Delta counter to get my tickets. The line was very long, wrapping around 6 times, but I was at the counter within 20 minutes, which is certainly acceptable. Then I got on the line for the security checkpoint, and got thru that in about 10 minutes… 30 minutes and I was golden! I didn’t mind sitting around the airport though, because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss my flight.
It is very strange seeing all kinds of people in uniforms with M-16s around the airport…. But it was strangely comforting… But there were many automatic weapons floating around, with some serious looking people behind the triggers… The world is so strange now. The plane was on time, and arrived in NJ early… As we came down in Newark I looked out of the plane at ground zero… I wasn’t over it, but I could see the hole in the sky where the towers once stood… I also saw the massive lighting systems used to illuminate the cleanup…. The whole sight broke my heart….. I don’t know if I will ever get used to the new skyline…
It’s nice to be home…
My brother, who is a cop currently applying for a job with the secret service, was talking last night about how all this new security serves no purpose other than to make us feel better. It’s no deterrent. He pointed out that you can easily sharpen a hunk of wood or stiff plastic sharp enough to slit throats, and that all-plastic guns have existed for years, all undetectable. And of course that the most likely incidents would be in areas where we aren’t looking or expecting. We put all our attention on airport security and then the next target is water, or downtown traffic, or whatever. He sees all the new measures as just being security blankets, not security measures. Hmmm…
I have agreed with your brother all along… Even though the mean looking guys and gals with M16’s honestly made me feel a bit better about the air-travel experience, I really don’t think they are changing the game at all..
If someone is serious about doing something bad, they will…
hmm
You do realize that the guardsmen are walking around
with an *empty* clip, no? There was an article in the albany times-union that mentioned that and my cousin, who is a guardsman, mentioned the same thing. You’re both right. the gov’t knows that maintaing the illusion of security is far easier than implementing it (it’ll be years before airlines adopt El-Al security techniques). hmpf.