AIRPORT SECURITY

In the political cartoon I found, written by Joe Heller, the author attempts humor by having a group of diverse people standing naked in the airport security line putting all of their items including underwear in the boxes waiting to go through the scanner. The subtitle underneath the picture states “ After the shoe bomber, they made us remove our shoes I figured it was only a matter of time…” which is referring to the poster on the scanner that says “Nigerian underwear bomber.” I believe the cartoon is arguing about how ridiculous airport security is getting taking off your shoes is one thing but people are starting to airport security a little too far. I think that the cartoonist does a good job of getting his point across by the way he formed his cartoon.       

A man named Richard Reid walked through airport security with a bomb built into his shoe in 2001 and successfully made it onto the plane. While on the plane Reid tried to light the bomb with a match and did so unsuccessfully because he was tackled and bounded by other concerned passengers and airline employees. As a direct result of this incident airports all over the country are forcing people to remove their shoes and walk through airport security barefoot while their shoes and carryons are being scanned through the machines for bombs (Wikipedia, 2010). As you can see this political cartoon shows all of the people standing barefoot waiting in line but the artist takes it one step further by also having everyone standing nude as well.

Many more bombing attempts have taken place over the years in airplanes people try to hide bombs in carryon bags, shoes, and even in underwear. One man tried to sneak explosives onto an airplane by sewing them into his underwear. The cartoonists notes a small poster in his cartoon about the Nigerian underwear bomber as a direct result from this incident. Now airports are bringing in full body scanners that take detailed images of the human body. According to Samantha Bomkamp, “there are now almost 300 scanners at 61 U.S. airports, both big and small, but still that's only a fraction of the 382 primary U.S. airports listed by the Department of Transportation” (bomkamp, 2010). Not only is the process of going through security getting more difficult it is also becoming very costly.” The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, aims to have 450 of the machines installed by the end of the year, though it isn't divulging locations for the new ones. The machines,which come with a price tag in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, can reveal plastic or chemical explosives and nonmetallic weapons”  (bomkamp, 2010). I agree that by increasing how precautious security the safer that people are, but when is the line drawn between precautions and insanity.

            Overall, I agree with the cartoonist about how airport security has become so outrageous over the years. The cartoonist did a good job of showing how ridiculous airport security has become over the years. The cartoonist was very persuasive by the way he used the facial expressions and text in his cartoon. I think that it is a good idea to expand security due to the fact that the shoe bomber and underwear bomber do exist, but I think that airport security is taking this issue a little bit too far.

Works Cited

Bomkamp, S. (2010, October 20). More airport security, just in time for the holidays. Retrieved october 23, 2010, from Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20101020/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_flight_plan_holiday_security

Hellar, J. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2010, from google: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://kloris.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55026407188330120a7894c3f970b-320wi&imgrefurl=http://www.ablueview.com/2009/12/airport-security-cartoons.html&usg=__2wna4vFQXNASOuU3U4Qa0QVNFnM=&h=213&w=320&sz=27&hl=en&start=20&zoom=1&

Wikipedia. (2010, october 27). Retrieved 0ctober 25, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid_(shoe_bomber)#cite_note-time_09-01-02-13