Noded: Security?

RantsSecurity?

January 04, 2004

I had friends in from England all last week so I was watching the news about flight cancellations and delays from France and England with more than the usual yawning. I noticed several things about the events of the last week that have left me confused.

One flight was delayed for three hours while they questioned the passengers. I was under the assumption that airport security was so tight now that although a terrorist might get on a airplane, things that could be used as a weapon could not possibly get past security.

Questions arise about another flight that was cancelled. The news reports said that the passengers were accommodated on other flights. In my somewhat warped sense of what is real, if there was a threat from one or more passengers on a flight, putting them on a different flight would not be much of a deterrent.

Could there have possibly been a terrorist attack? Sure there could have been, but the government reaction somehow seems to not put a lot of credence into the steps they have already put in place to make flying safe. As I see it terrorists are free to fly as long as their goal is to just use the airplane to get to where ever the plane is supposed to go.

I found this Helen Keller quote on someones web site (which I now can not find...)

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.
Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

This quote was like a wack upside the head for me. There appears to be some people, some people in power, that are under the impression that they can make life completely safe. They are willing to bet your life on it. That doesn't sound safe to me.

Posted by jr at January 4, 2004 11:28 AM | Threads

Comments

Great quote. I first began getting annoyed with official security when I was pregnant with my first born in 1990. The nurses/ doctors seemed to think that they had to subject me to anything and everything to ensure "security." When I objected to amniocentesis they said, "But if you don't have it, we might get sued." That's when I walked out and went to a free-standing birth centre run by midwives. Sure, I wanted a healthy baby, safe delivery, blah blah blah, but what I was getting was a corporatist stranglehold instead. The midwives did the job just as well, but without all the doo-dads and "guarantees." Like, you're gonna guarantee me that my baby will be perfect, a genius, a Nobel Laureate, a musical prodigy, and polymath, good-looking, charming, kind and polite? And that he/she won't get run over by an SUV at age 5 or hit a tree driving home from a teenaged party? Litigation and corporatism have guaranteed not security but strangleholds.

Posted by: Yule Heibel at January 6, 2004 07:32 PM

Regarding Security... I work at a Psuedo State Government Organization and we are constantly bombarded with Security Related emails... This is the one we got today...

"Effective Monday, January 5, 2004, all visitors entering buildings B-1 and B-2 will be allowed to enter only with an employee escort from the lobby area. Visitors will not be permitted to roam to other offices unless arrangements are made in advance and they are accompanied by an employee escort. "

I think that the next step will be leashes provided to each visitor, so they can't get away...

I think that the government might be going a little to far with this...

Posted by: Nodette #2 at January 5, 2004 02:46 PM

Of course you could also quote Finding Nemo (yes I have children). When Marlin says he promised Nemo that he wouldn't let anything happen to him and Dory points out that if you don't let ANYTHING happen then NOTHING will happen. Ever. What a horrid life to live if nothing ever happened. Course at the moment, I'd be happier with some happy things happening.

Posted by: Nodette #1 at January 4, 2004 06:43 PM

What a great quote. Especially when you consider the source.
Yes, security does seem a little ... mercurial nowadays, doesn't it? Illusive, etherical, ... but wasn't it always? Maybe we just have a more heightened sense of awareness now, one of knowing. Like Helen Keller seemed to know so much, to be aware of so much more than most of the other people who were sighted and blessed with the gift of speaking often ... about nothing.

Posted by: Kate S. at January 4, 2004 04:16 PM

I'm staying home this year.

Posted by: Philip at January 4, 2004 01:08 PM