The story Greg Weston offers in this morning's Toronto Sun is all about weak links. Ostensibally it is about scanners and the high school dropouts who are operating them at airports but it is really about weak links.
Sidebar, anyone who has been to an airport and that is all of us I presume, was not shocked that the 911 peeps got on board with their weapons; and Lord knows, it wouldn't be too hard to get by the crack security team at name-your-airport. Every few years a TV reporter will smuggle stuff on a plane and instead of going "...f'ck, we better hire competent people to screen out the passengers..." they will threaten the reporter with action.
Ditto places like Parliament Hill in our town and the tunnel system that runs under the Hill.
He opens with this great blast: "Anyone who has gone through airport security since 9/11 will probably appreciate Henry Ford's observation that thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few do it."
And closes with this: "True, the government wants to dramatically slash the $418 million it is shelling out for airport screening. And, sure, by far the biggest part of that cost is for the more than 6,000 screeners, 25% of whom quit and have to be replaced every year. And, yeah, $170,000 machines that can see through your clothes don't get paid, take sick leave or holidays, or need pensions. But that's not why the government wants to turn air travellers into frequent flashers. It's all about security. Honest."
A chain is as strong as its weakest link.
Think about that next time you board a plane.
WFDS
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