Can We Overreact Just a Little More?

My girlfriend's sister flew in from Seattle yesterday to visit for a few days. Unfortunately she had already left for the airport by the time the news of yesterday's thwarted terror plot had begun to be disseminated by your favorite new sources. Little did she know that she would soon be on the floor at the airport emptying her suitcase of all her newly purchased toiletries.

Yesterday, all across America, air travelers were being forced to throw-away such dangerous items as shampoo, perfume, toothpaste, face wash and lip balm.

This is how we do it here. In the interest of fairness, we punish everyone for the sins of a few. No one wants to be accused of the dreaded "profiling". So instead of extra screening for those who look like the terrorists who were trying to attack us, we make all travelers throw out their personal care items and feel up old ladies in wheel chairs.

If a bank were robbed by a 5'6" white man with a shaved head who drove away in a Dodge Dart, would we stop the Latino girl driving the Neon? Or harass the 80 year old war veteran in his Lincoln? I am pretty confident that the answer to these questions are no. Why then do we subject traveling American citizens to such inconvenience and embarrassment while simply trying to carry on (no pun intended) with their lives?