Thanksgiving at the Airport Gates: Arrive Early and Thank God to be Alive

Viral videos are abounding on the web with low resolution images of what the x-ray style screenings look like.

Private body parts are not clearly discernable.

Gizmodo has just released a you tube video of 100 body scans that the Orlando, Florida U.S. Marshalls office saved and 'released.' As of 7 AM Eastern, over 1 million seven-hundred thousand (1,719,605) global visits have been made to their website.

What's the uproar about?

Well, Thanksgiving is around the corner and perhaps up to 10 million passengers (2 million on a regular day) will be checked by TSA in the three days prior to the holiday at the 68 airports which have this latest technology.

The choice is clear at these airports. You can either go through the low radiation or TSA can perform a full body pat-down that will begin at the hips proceeding downward and then upward on the inside of your legs up to the groin--two times. Private body parts are excluded.

John Tyner called attention to this procedure; at San Diego airport, he refused the x-ray procedure and when subject to the pat-down warned the TSA agent to keep his hands off his 'junk.'

So he was detained, threatened with a $10,000 lawsuit, refused to submit to the pat-down, was refunded his ticket and left the airport.

All these events Tyner recorded on his cellphone which was posted on the web and it's now the rage of the media.

So where do we go from here?

Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security has appeared publicly to announce that she is open to modification of the procedures. "If there are adjustments we need to make to these procedures, we will make them...We have an open ear; we will listen," she said.

Since 9/11 heightened security measures have thwarted a number of would be bombers; there has been the shoe bomber Richard Reid; on December 22, 2001, he attempted to blow up AA Flight 63 by igniting a detonator cord and luckily was foiled. Then the underwear bomber Umar Farook Abdulmutallub was apprehended aboard NW flight 253 as he tried unsuccessfully to ignite PETN explosive hidden in his underwear. ( luckily, PETN is very difficult to ignite; it is classified as a secondary explosive)

Hats off to homeland security, vigilant and brave passengers and flight attendants for the fantastic job of creating an atmosphere where would be terrorists have been thwarted and often prevented in their conspiracies, attempts, plots, etc.

The American public must be patient. The options are clear. One need not board an airliner.

There are alternate means of transport.

Flying is a luxury, not an entitlement.

Welcome to the 21st century. We are fighting a war of terror which is also a war to avoid terror.
The collective safety of hundreds of passengers are at stake.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote 200 hundred years ago: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Get to the airport early-- early in the day and two hours before flight. Bring your i-pods, i-pads,
videos and reading material.

Report suspicious behavior and have a safe holiday.