See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me...

"See me, feel me, touch me..." is a line from a song by The Who from the classic rock-opera "Tommy." However, it could also be the new theme song for the TSA over their new policy of groping passengers at airports. (The way things are going these days, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they piped the song over loudspeakers in airport security checkpoints.)

It appears that I will probably face this personal invasion at the end of next week when I head off to Japan.

The Associated Press has posted this editorial, which reads in part:

After nine years of funneling travelers into ever longer lines with orders to have shoes off, sippy cups empty and laptops out for inspection, the most surprising thing about increasingly heated frustration with the federal Transportation Security Administration may be that it took so long to boil over.

The agency, a marvel of nearly instant government when it was launched in the fearful months following the 9/11 terror attacks, started out with a strong measure of public goodwill. Americans wanted the assurance of safety when they boarded planes and entrusted the government with the responsibility.

But in episode after episode since then, the TSA has demonstrated a knack for ignoring the basics of customer relations, while struggling with what experts say is an all but impossible task. It must stand as the last line against unknown terror, yet somehow do so without treating everyone from frequent business travelers to the family heading home to visit grandma as a potential terrorist.

The TSA "is not a flier-centered system. It's a terrorist-centered system and the travelers get caught in it," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University who has tracked the agency's effectiveness since it's creation.

That built-in conflict is at the heart of a growing backlash against the TSA for ordering travelers to step before a full-body scanner that sees through their clothing, undergo a potentially invasive pat-down or not fly at all.

"After 9/11 people were scared and when people are scared they'll do anything for someone who will make them less scared," said Bruce Schneier, a Minneapolis security technology expert who has long been critical of the TSA. "But ... this is particularly invasive. It's strip-searching. It's body groping. As abhorrent goes, this pegs it."

A traveler in San Diego, John Tyner, has become an Internet hero after resisting both the scan and the pat-down, telling a TSA screener: "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested." That has helped ignite a campaign urging people to refuse such searches on Nov. 24, which immediately precedes Thanksgiving and is one of the year's busiest travel days.

To read the full AP editorial, go here.

The TSA and the Obama administration were surprised to learn that rather than being compliant "sheeple," the traveling public decided that these new security measures go too far and are rebelling.

I agree with the end of the editorial that at some point the traveling public feel that there is a line that can't be crossed, and these new security procedures crossed that line.