Like so many other survivors of sexual molestation, this entire TSA screening issue has me on total edge.
I don’t have any flights scheduled in the coming weeks, but there is one that possibly could come about in January.
Already I’m nervous.
Is somebody going to touch me where I absolutely cannot be touched?
Am I going to have to go through a screening device?
How do I know with absolute certainty that the guy who is gazing at my body scan or touching me, doesn’t have the background of a molester? Seems like these are going to be the most wanted jobs on the jobs list for some of these people.
They get to gaze and/or touch and get paid for it. Some of us who get use every bit of emotional energy we have just to use a public bathroom, are now facing an entire new monster.
All of this has the potential to undo a great deal of therapeutic work.
And it’s not being taken into account.
I know, I know. I have no argument in this one. The safety of travelers is way ahead of the issues that sexual molestation survivors have. At least I think that’s what we’re being told here.
No, I don’t want to be on a plane where there’s a potential of a terrorist hiding a bomb in his underwear.
So now with every psychological defense one can imagine, I’m already worrying about getting on a plane.
It’s something that I believe therapists are going to have to work on with their clients, those who can’t be touched by strangers.
Do we just drive our cars to our destinations? Do we purchase train tickets?
Or do we just bear with it and go through the screening?
Screener stories have become the contemporary “war” stories for all of us who travel.
It used to be that we’d have that story about the El Al security person who would just by looking at us made us confess that maybe we really didn’t pack our own suitcase or maybe we really did accept a package from a friend to take to Israel. I’ve sometimes gone to Israel with a suitcase filled with stuff that I was taking for friends’ kids who were in yeshiva or seminary. I once took an entire duffle bag of baseball equipment to Israel and was so afraid I’d have to explain why I had a bag filled with bats. One El Al screener asked me if I attended Hebrew school? She then asked me who the rabbi of Baltimore was.
But she didn’t touch me. Her eyes did all of the scanning. I’d have to say from El Al’s stellar record, that these methods are important and they work. They show the real skill involved in keeping our airlines safe. It seems less to do with a latex glove and a feel or a an x-ray and more to do with a visual scan and a conversation.
I know for sure that I don’t want anyone touching me, and I also know that I don’t want to go through some sort of scanning device that reveals all.
I especially don’t want my grandson to have to deal with this stuff.

I don’t think it unreasonable to ask that if a person is concerned about being scanned or touched that they there at least be a professional social worker on TSA’s team that can help a traveler such as myself get through all of this. It isn’t easy. I’m not kidding. It’s that severe of a challenge.
For the TSA guy, I’m just one of hundreds of people he’s screened that day. For many molestation survivors, let’s just say we’ll already have gone through turbulence and the plane hasn’t even taken off yet.
I want to be able to fly the friendly skies.
But they’re not so friendly now.
No, now they’re freaking me out.
What scares me even worse.
Maybe the terrorists have won.
I mean, here we are, scanning old people and babies.
I’m worrying about flying to another American City for a vacation.
This is my country. I’m a citizen here.
Yet I’m getting iradiated and felt up.
It’s not that I have fear of flying.
I have fear of getting on the plane.

I obviously can not speak to the emotional trauma of molestation survivors who are touched in potentially inappropriate places in the name of security.  However, I can potentially provide my two cents in regards to the efficiency and effectiveness of these new “security measures”.

There are two ways to look at these new measures:
One way is to argue that there is no doubt that there is a deterrent factor involved.  I would argue that some would-be terrorists re-evaluate their plans due to these new security measures.

On the opposite side, from a security specialist point of view, all of these actions are futile.  As you mentioned in your statements above, it takes a few seconds for an Israeli security person to recognize a threat.  You were asked who the rabbi of Baltimore is to evaluate your response time, you are asked about others in your party to see if it is consistent, and who packed your bag is important because you may slip in your answer.  Yes, it is called PROFILING.  A word that took on a negative connotation in the USA, but by all means, it keeps us safe.

If TSA would recognize that there are better, less invasive, ways of keeping security high maybe this would be a mute point.

As a side note, did you know that the City of NY, which owns Port Authority, is considering forcing TSA to remove all scanners from their airports.  They proved them to be ineffective, and as it turns out they have the power to do so if they choose to.

Safe travels,
BK.