TSA, TSA, TSA! Oops. For a minute there I got confused thinking that I was typing the chant for USA, but instead typed TSA. Yep, today’s tribute, I mean scrutiny will be on the TSA. Let me begin by stating that I commend the TSA agents for doing what is a weird job. They are searching almost the innards of folks, without the satisfaction of knowing, that like a doctor or nurse, one is performing a job that can result in healing. Yes, I know all about the “safety,” “safe from terrorism,” etc., etc., etc., why American citizens are being humiliated at airports.

I am not too fond of the term “middle ground,” which usually means we end up with a mess. But, in this case, there has to be some kind of “middle ground,” or “middle sky.” The unnecessary assault on the dignity of human beings has to stop. Are we going to continue to let the terrorists win in this category also?

This is interesting. In researching TSA, I found that there are at least three other organizations with the same acronym, including Texas Society of Anesthesiologists. Maybe there is a medical aspect to the other TSA, after all.

If the TSA has canines as part of its workforce, I would agree to a pat down, enhanced or other, by a cute canine, especially a Collie. Finally, there would be a plus in this TSA experience! Hatton does have a special link to 9/11.

So, the TSA is enhancing its enhanced pat downs with chat downs? I welcome the chat downs, if this means that the “profiling” of Caucasian toddlers in diapers, Caucasian grandmothers with walkers, Caucasian females with medical implants, and Caucasian men with colostomies will stop. I almost forgot. At one point, black women with natural hairstyles were also being scrupulously searched for bombs or other devices in their hair. I escaped that one when I last traveled. I forgot again. Female Indian (from the country of India), diplomats, at least one, somehow got into that profiling thing, and was given a thorough pat down. Needless to say, she was not pleased. In the meantime, an “unusual” looking Muslim male, who turned out to be the alleged “Shoe Bomber,” was waved on with his device in his sneaker. He did not fit any profiles. Mr. Pistole, you will be held to the following promise:

"Enhancing identity-based screening is another common-sense step in the right direction as we continue to strengthen overall security, and improve the passenger experience whenever possible."

I used to enjoy flying, sitting at a window seat, looking through the window at the surrounding “cloudscape.” If I am flying hundreds of miles above land, is it still landscape? I had quite a bit to say about the new reality of flying in “Thoughts Of A Proud American.” I wrote on Friday, 1/4/02:

Another pathetic scenario is the whole flying thing. The airlines and the

authorities are so afraid of being labeled “racist,” that they are strip-searching little old ladies, with walkers, while letting a 6 foot 5 inches tall male, wild-eyed, with no luggage, hop on board – unchecked. Yeah, let us chase down Grandma, “speeding” two steps a minute with her walker, while “Rabid Raj,” ready to be lit, is welcomed on board. His only decision is whether he should wait until “lunch” is served before lighting his sneakers, or not even wait for the peanuts. It is not the Terrorists who will serve up another 9/11. It is going to be that “fella” called “Political Correctness.”

Imagine, I wrote that back in 2002. This is 2011 and as I have noted earlier, the new “suspects” seem to be Americans, mainly of a certain hue. I am glad that I do not have any children, because should we be traveling and my daughter especially, was about to be given an “enhanced pat down,” I may have ended up in an enhanced/padded cell! It is grotesque that children are being subjected to this type of “scrutiny,” which under other circumstances, would involve serious jail time. How are kids going to know the difference between a government-sanctioned pat down, and a pedophilic pat down? There has to be a better, more appropriate way!

I know that TSA agents are our neighbors, friends, family, fellow citizens, and reflect the society at large. However, stories such as these in this ABC news story, are unfortunate, and a bad reflection on the TSA. This traveler probably expresses how most of us feel, as strangers search through our undergarments and other clothing:

"It's the violation of it, the fact that somebody would actually have the audacity to even touch my things, and made everything seem really dirty to me," said Salmons. "And it really made me not want to travel."

The first time that I traveled since my trip in 2003, was in June of this year. To lighten the tense mood, I offered myself to be patted down by a male TSA agent. Now that I think about it, thank God he was a pleasant one and did not call security on me for “soliciting!” We had a good laugh, and I got the impression that he had heard that line before.

Well, what have we here? It appears that yet another government agency in the safety business is enjoying its job too much?  The National Security Agency and the FBI, working in tandem, are delivering National Security Letters  to American citizens? This is the first time I have heard of this. The following is being done:

Thanks to new laws and technologies, authorities track and eavesdrop on Americans as they never could before, hauling in billions of bank records, travel receipts and other information. In several cases, they have wiretapped conversations between lawyers and defendants, challenging the legal principle that attorney-client communication is inviolate.

If they see my bank account records, they will feel such pity, they will put at least a trillion in my account! With that trillion, I could travel and have receipts for them to scrutinize. I could also retain the services of a lawyer with that trillion. Again, this would assist in having conversations to be wiretapped. Nah, there is no scrutiny needed. I describe myself as a God-fearing, family, friends and country-loving gal. I live up to that description – and proud to do so! Warts, pimples, pustules and all – this US is still the best country, the one in which I chose to live, and I will never betray it, not even for 72 studs in the afterlife. Actually, not even for said studs in the here and now.

The debate continues between civil liberties and security:

Advocates say the expanded surveillance has helped eliminate vulnerabilities identified after the Sept. 11 attacks. Some critics, unconvinced, say the snooping undermines privacy and civil liberties and leads inevitably to abuse. They argue that the new systems have weakened security by burying investigators in irrelevant information.

Surely, with all the high paid brains behind all of these operations, someone can come up with policies that catch the creeps who kill innocents, without turning the country into a communist state. Are we bent on giving the dead terrorists and their live associates a victory in this arena? Please, think and implement a better system. Pretend that the country is broke and cannot afford the construction of agency after agency, with overlapping responsibilities, with continual infringement on the rights of citizens. I know. That is difficult, but try.

In the meantime, we the flying public, let us try to empathize with the workers who, for the most part, are simply trying to implement a policy that is pleasing to no one. Well, maybe it is pleasing to wannabe terrorists who get their jollies from seeing Americans humiliated – if killing, the better outcome, is not yet possible.

Sometimes when life’s difficulties threaten to overwhelm me, I console myself by actually counting my blessings, on my fingers. Count Your Blessings , especially sung by the pure voices of a boys’ choir, should hopefully be pleasant to the ears, and healing to any negative emotions.

God bless America, and grant wisdom to those in whose care American citizens have been entrusted.