Airline Restriction Rant

This is going to be a rant about the way the current foiled terrorist plot is being handled. So if you don't want to read about it, or at least my opinion of it...stop here. More exciting stuff lies in previous posts.

So the terrorists were foiled. That is a good thing. It's reassuring that the intelligence community is doing something that is obviously working. And way to go Pakistan that the government was willing to help out. All these are good things. The bad thing is the knee-jerk reaction to the problem. It's understood that planes should be made as safe as possible. But we all take on the risk of flying. We know what could happen. That doesn't stop us from hopping on a plane. What is SO BLOODY IRRITATING is that the response to the threat of terrorist action is doing exactly what the terrorists want to do, encroach on our liberties and make us fearful. We are imprisoning ourselves in a state that limits our rights. We are, in fact, accomplishing exactly what the terrorists are aiming for. The current restrictions, at least flying in and out of UK airports, are to limit on board belongings to identification, eyeglasses/contacts, medications (as long as they can be proven to be what they say there are), and female sanitary products (as seen on the British Airways website). They must be transported on the plane in a clear plastic bag. Everything else goes in the hold. Now this is absurd for many reasons. Yes, you can technically carry on all the little bits of equipment needed to create something to disable a plane. But technically I could kill the person sitting in the seat next to me or the flight attendent with the plastic spoon that comes with my meal (if we even get meals). Maybe they'll replace plastic silverware with styrofoam silverware. My fists are technically a weapon. If I decided to shave my teeth to razor points, or grow and file my nails in such a way that they would cut someone open, would I be required to pull my teeth out and cut my nails. Where does the encroachment of are civil liberties end? I realize that those examples are extreme, but they are possibilities.

So why is the government and airlines intent on creating fear? Realistically, if those 10 planes had been boarded and blown up, approximately 3000 people would have been killed, maybe more if it was done over land or a building was involved. But, as tragic as it would be , and I hate to say it, that's not that many people. More people are killed each year in Africa, and the insurgency in the Middle East, yet we're not restricted from going to those places. We simply accept the risk that something horrible could in fact happen. So if I'm willing to take the risk to buy a plane ticket to fly somewhere in the world, why should my rights to carry certain things on my person, like a book or a newspaper, be taken away just because there might be someone with a plan to blow something up. Someone, somewhere could have decided that I needed to be hurt or killed. That doesn't mean that I'm going to change the way I live because I'm fearful that it could happen. No, I will stand up and not be afraid by someone hoping to restrict my way of life.

That is all.