War on Terror Over by Rev. Tom Schade

The word just in is that the War on Terror is so over, at least the Airport front. Not "over", as in not happening anymore but "over" in like "no longer cool in any way."

After nine short years of airport security procedures, the American flying public has had enough and is no longer willing to be compliant. The straw that broke our collective camel-esque humps was the choice between the body scanner and the enhanced pat-down techniques.

In the beginning, we were willing to give up meeting our friends at the gate, or saying goodbye to them as they boarded the plane. We were willing to add an hour to our airport time every time we flew. We were willing to wait in long lines. We were willing to have our carry on luggage scanned. We were willing to empty our pockets and take off our jackets, and then our shoes. We were willing to pack our liquids with special procedures. We were willing to buy more expensive bottles of water inside the security zone. We made willing sacrifices for the cause of our greater safety,

We all felt so British, so '"stiff in the upper lip area": "Keep Calm and Hold your pants up with one hand as you shuffle like a shoeless penguin through the machine."

But then, they came for our fat.

Choice number one: you stand in a scanner and some person somewhere far away sees in full detail what you look like as a naked body. Don't tell me we are afraid that someone might see our reproductive apparatuses, now technically termed our "junk". I suspect our fear is that someone won't be able to see our "junk" because there is too much "chunk" in the way.

The other choice is an enhanced pat down, where someone actually touches you. As a taxpayer and a patriot, I resent any implication by my government that I could smuggle enough plastic explosive to bring down a plane in one of my abdominal folds. And the idea that a uniformed agent of the federal government is going to rummage around in them is too much.

So, I don't know what to think anymore.

If there is a real threat to air travel, shouldn't this escalation be as acceptable as everything that came before? If it is truly necessary, then enough said.

But if there isn't a sufficient threat to justify this, then we have to ask if the whole airport security system has been a charade from the beginning, a piece of political theatre?

So, who has the authority to tell us what is real and necessary when it comes to air travel security? In today's environment, any statement from any person is suspected as propaganda or spin. There are no objective experts.

What does liberal religion offer to a world in which there are no recognized objective authorities, where everyone who speaks is seen to be a propagandist? Or where everything is significant only in how it affects "Apocalypse 2012, Obama vs. Palin". (It's still on even though a Palin surrogate lost the crucial ballroom dancing primary.)

Liberal Religion is not another final authority; I am not trying to fill Walter Cronkite's shoes. It has a different mission: when there are no objective experts anymore, liberal religion reminds us that good judgment is a personal responsibility. We will have wiser political leaders and better media when we are more careful voters and information consumers. It is our duty to find the facts, analyze the situation and come to judicious conclusions. We should be challenging others to do the same, whether we agree with them or not.

If we do not think for ourselves, no one else can do it for us.