Home » Archives » April 2007 » How Safe Are You Willing To Be?
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04/24/2007: "How Safe Are You Willing To Be?"
We as Americans have many strengths, but foresight isn't one of them. We can't see the future, and aren't very good at predicting how it will unfold. But we're damned good at reacting to events once they happen, even if that particular reaction doesn't provide much of a benefit.
After 9-11, we all learned the joys of having our carry-on bags searched, and our scissors and nail files confiscated. Once Richard Reed tried to blow up an airplane with explosives hidden in his shoe, we discovered the hard way to make sure you wear clean socks to the airport. Can we say we're any safer, or are we just doing something - anything - to convince ourselves we are less at risk?
In the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech and NASA's Johnson Space Center, many are asking how someone could bring weapons into such facilities. The factual answer is "very easily." We live in an inherently open society, one in which we trust our fellow man to do the right thing by us. When we are betrayed we are shocked and hurt, and then react by adding restrictions to our actions.
The Boeing facility where I work isn't significantly different than JSC in terms of security. Every day, I drive into a parking lot where, depending on the lot, there might be a guard to take a cursory look at my badge. Because I'm pretty mobile, I have a backpack in which I carry all of the tools I need to do my job - laptop, PDA, miscellaneous peripherals and such. I flash my badge at the guard - if there is even one (most entrances are automated) and enter the facility. I could just as easily be carrying C4 explosive and a couple of guns in my backpack; no one would ever know.
Could we make our universities and workplaces safer? Sure, but at what price? We could put up perimeter fences around the facility and control the entrances, but that would take away any feeling of openness on the campus. We could issue badges to anyone who has a reason to be on site, and search everyone going in or out, but that would mean arriving an hour early to spend time in the inevitable lines. Are we willing to do this? I don't think so.
At some point, you have to stop the finger pointing and the efforts to slam the gate after the horses have left the barn and start looking forward. Part of the price we pay for living in a free society is that we will always be at risk; we need to focus on what motivates those who would do us harm and look to stop them before they start.
