The TSA, Transportation Security Administration, has gone too far. What they call safety, others call groping. John S. Pistole, the head of the TSA, said, “We are constantly evaluating and adapting our security measures, and as we have said from the beginning, we are seeking to strike the right balance between privacy and security.” Pat-downs and see-through scanners are becoming too much and are simply embarrassing for passengers.

Pat-downs have started a national uproar causing the TSA to respond with a calm response. ”We will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve,” said Pistole. Complaints have been made about the aggressiveness and invasiveness these inhumane touchings have caused. One man, a bladder cancer survivor, was forced to have a pat-down. His experience was so aggressive that the TSA officer unplugged his urostomy bag. “I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. Sawyer, 61. These personal-space-invading pat-downs are becoming ridiculous and embarrassing for everyone. They are done in clear, plexy-glass rooms for all to see. Men, women, and children are subjected to being touched from head to toe, literally. There is no place the TSA won’t go.

Those ordinary metal detectors have been enhanced to a new full-body imaging scanner. These new scanners have the capabilities to see through clothing, so that any items capable of putting the public in harm’s way will be attained. “We're always evaluating and trying to assess what is the best possible way of conducting our security operations to ensure the safety and security of the traveling public," Pistole said. Although this colossal step is meant to help people and it is ensuring their safety on airplanes, top radiologists suspect passengers are experiencing radiation when images are being taken. CBS News has calculated the amounts of radiation and while flying, each passenger is up to flying thirty-five thousand feet in the air. One minute of this airplane ride has about the same amount of radiation as one time through the scanner.

Not only does the TSA thoroughly pat-down our bodies, they go through bags, suitcases, and anything else they can get their hands on. For Kathy Parker, a 43 year old woman, the TSA went through her purse, wallet, and receipts. They found a handful of checks equaling about eight thousand dollars. After a pretty hefty assumption, the TSA called her husband. When she got home, her husband of 20 years, John Parker, a self-employed plastics broker, said the police had called and told him that they'd suspected "a divorce situation" and that Kathy Parker was trying to empty their bank account. He set them straight. "I was so humiliated," she said. As if tearing suitcases apart wasn’t enough, the TSA believe it is their jobs to become part of people’s personal lives.

As I have said before, TSA pat-downs and full-body scanners are becoming too much for passengers and are too much of a hassle. They create a loss of dignity and they don’t respect
passengers as human beings. Pat-downs constitute uncomfortable procedures that no one should have to go though.