With two National Guardsmen holding M-16s staring at me from only five feet away, I relented. He patted me down thoroughly and groped me. The guardsmen watched the grope. The female guard smiled but did not raise her eyes above my waist.
Tommy Henderson
via the Internet
Social insecurity:I have never written a letter to the editor before, because I feel that I have no need to complain. However, after reading the offensive belly-aching, bitching and whining that seemed to pour out so readily in the last issue, I felt it necessary. The whiny Americans have reached an all-time low! We haven't even buried our dead yet, and they are complaining about having to go through a pat-down at the airport because they chose to wear undergarments with metal in them! I'm ashamed that these people have the right to call themselves American!
There are a few things that I have learned in my short life of 24 years: 1) Put all jewelry and metal in the little basket, or they willset the metal detector off; 2) Don't wear my favorite belt on the plane, because it sets the metal detector off; and 3) There are entire nations starving to death around the world, but hey, they don't complain -- they try to fixthe problem! I guess what I am trying to say is this: If you do not like being patted, prodded, felt up and poked at, then you should not wear undergarments with wires and other metal in them! If you want to wear them, then face the consequences!
I, for one, am glad that DIA's security is taking this risk so seriously! Where is the rule that states that the woman standing in line next to me is not allowed to be a terrorist? She could easily be hiding a knife or gun in her bra, which just happens to have a wire in it, which just happens to be good for strangling people! At least DIA's planes will not be hijacked! Can you say that about other airports that happen to have the usual nonchalant security?
In closing, if you really have nothing to complain about...don't! And realize that America's airports have changed drastically. When will the pompous, belly-aching Americans change? I'm proud to be an American who does not bitch and complain.
Bryce Smith
via the Internet
Blond ambition:On October 11, I read Patricia Calhoun's column about women being singled out and subjected to security checks at DIA. These security checks involved electronic scans by a male security guard with a handheld scanning device. During the scanning process, the device touched the woman's private parts. The guard then had a female security guard with surgical gloves conduct a pat-down search of her entire body while a male military guardsman stood by, smirking.
My wife flew out of DIA that same Thursday. After waiting several hours, she finally made it through the security stations and boarded her Frontier flight. My wife happens to be a very beautiful woman. Just as she got comfortable in her seat, a security official came on board and informed her that the computer had randomly selected her to undergo a private security investigation, similar to the scans described in Westword. A few weeks ago the president of my firm flew out of DIA and went through exactly the same process (electronically scanned and patted down). She's a very attractive female citizen, just like the others.
Three beautiful women and three "random" security checks.
How many blond, blue-eyed women have terrorized the airlines in recent memory? Or ever, for that matter? When your girlfriend, wife, sister, mother, daughter or female friend travels through DIA, will she have a similar experience?
Other Americans and the citizens of Colorado may be proud of our new "Homeland Security," but I am not!
Rick Stanley
Libertarian for U.S. Senate
Noe such luck:Hey, Earl Noe! Speaking of "fire-breathing letters, overflowing with outrage, towering with superiority..." -- yours in the October 18 issue pretty much fits the bill. Before you cast any more such aspersions, you should know that I am one of those who claims the "anonymous" moniker. Before you stop reading, you might want to start thinking, because there is nothing I like better than seeing my name in print. So much so that I became a journalist. And therein lies the rub. When you work for the competition or a big news organization, it becomes kind of a sticky business to spout off in other papers that don't pay your paycheck. I'm sorry if this doesn't measure up to your high Boulder standards of ethics, but that's the way it is for some of us working-class types. (Yeah, like that's your real name, anyway!) Your ol' pal,
Name withheld on request
