I am struggling to understand the significance of the one quart size Zip-lock bag.  According to Transportation Safety Administration regulations,  “All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in three-ounce or smaller containers…and must be placed in a single, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag…Gallon size bags are not allowed.”  If, for instance, I have 3 ounces of lotion in a one gallon bag I am not permitted to take it through security.  If, however I place that same lotion in a quart size bag the lotion is okay to board the plane.  Clearly the bag makes all the difference. 

I wish I was simply being ironic, but I am not.

Every time I fly I am convinced the entire industry has channeled the spirit of Alan Funt in order to see exactly how much abuse airline passengers will put up with before going mad.  Unfortunately we humans have an enormous capacity to adapt so rather than go mad we choose to believe the maltreatment will make us safer so we shrug our shoulders and accept it.  

When it comes to the big picture Americans are not sheep.  A report of warrentless wire-taps or police cutting corners is greeted with appropriate indignation and those in power are cautioned to tread lightly.  However, small day to day incursions into our liberties are another story.  Intrusive questions, random searches of our bodies and lists of nonsensical rules and regulations we simply ignore.  It isn’t just the TSA. The airlines have similarly replaced customer service with an air of civil service and bureaucracy.  From the moment we step into the Airport we are treated as a nuisance and a potentially dangerous nuisance at that.  Where we were once bid to “fly the friendly skies” we are now told to sit down and shut up. Flights overbooked?  Sit down and shut up!  Forced to sit on a runway for hours?  Sit down and shut up!

Because the TSA is charged with our safety, the foolishness they engage in is particularly galling.  Aside from the prohibition against box cutters, how many of the hassles we endure at the airport actually make us safer?

During a recent trip to Chicago my family dropped our luggage at the check-in. A very officious acting young man asked us if we had packed any firearms or explosives in our luggage.

I am not sure of the purpose behind this question.  I must confess that if I had any terrorist ambitions I would be reluctant to answer truthfully. 

 Perhaps there are people that innocently and accidentally pack explosives in their checked baggage or are unaware of the restrictions against transporting such items.  “You know I did pack some dynamite in with my gym socks.  Am I not allowed to do that?”

There were actually very few passengers in the security area at LAX. Of course that was because everyone was standing in line waiting to get into the security area!  The security woman manning this post took her time studying identification and boarding passes as if she would be quizzed later in the day.  She then interrogated small children as to their names and ages.  The gentleman in front of us struggled valiantly to get his 3 year old daughter to speak up.  The frightened little girl stood there with her finger in her mouth as most 3 year olds are wont to do when approached by strangers.  Not to be deterred by the willfulness of a small child, the TSA agent persisted in her questioning as the line grew longer. Our crack federal airport security in action:  slow moving and slow witted.  I, for one, felt so much safer!

My wife of course was not nearly as annoyed as I was.  Like so many others she has decided that there is nothing to be gained by complaining. After all this is all in our best interest.  Yet the more we adapt and the less we question the more service-with-a-smile will be replaced with contempt and suspicion and we will not be a whit safer than we were prior to 9/11/01.  I am not as willing as my wife to cede the ground of common sense to people not smart enough to invent an x-ray machine that can see through my video camera case.  So, I will not stop complaining until someone can tell me exactly what it is about that one quart bag that makes me any safer.

 Joseph C. Phillips is the author of “He Talk Like A White Boy” available wherever fine books are sold.