The glory days of flying are now over. Long gone are the days of beautiful, cheery flight attendants and bright-eyed, young pilots who earned their stripes in World War II or any other military conflict. The flight attendant job has been relegated to older women who look like one of the members of ZZ Top without the awesome beard. Pilots have turned into exhausted, worn out older men who always regale us with the weather at our destination in the same, monotonous pilot tone.
Recent security lapses in American airports and abroad have forced the Transportation Security Administration and other aviation security groups to up the ante in the security game. The TSA is now starting to implement screening devices that can literally see through the traveler’s clothes to reveal possible hidden explosives and weapons.
I wholeheartedly support the increased security measures for our general safety, but I also think that the screening units might be a possible privacy issue for those of us (you know who you are) who are not comfortable in their own skin and are slightly modest. The Federal Aviation Administration promises that there will be no issues with the new screening machines, but what measures are being put in place that will prevent a perverted screener from using the machine for his or her own sick pleasure?
There really is not another solution to the modesty-inducing screening machines unless we could somehow travel back to ancient Greece, where complete nudity was the norm and there was no modesty. One would have to think the Hellenes would not mind our new screening processes, as they would just walk through the machine without any clothes on.
Problem solved.
Ideally, there would be no terrorists who want to wreak havoc on American soil, thus we would not have to go through these security measures. But this is just not the case. If we want to live a life of luxury and travel at over 400 mph while eating allergy-friendly nuts, we will have to deal with these new machines and get over the chagrin that they will ultimately cause.
Bruno Bruelhart is a senior history and writing major from Hobbs, N.M.
