Pat-Downs and Pumpkin Pie

Jessica Zuckerman / November 22, 2010

Pat-downs and body scanners seem to be keeping some from getting in the Thanksgiving spirit this week.

As if the security lines weren’t bad enough during the busiest time of the year to fly, travelers are now faced with the invasive screening measures. Seniors speculate how to get out of their wheelchairs to walk through scanners, and parents wonder if their toddlers will be selected for additional screening. The bottom line is that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is currently treating every traveler as a threat.

Last week Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano set out to ease traveler concerns in an op-ed in USA Today. “Our best defense against such [terrorist] threats,” she wrote, “remains a risk-based, layered security (more…)