Alert passengers best defense against terrorists Re: “Airport security is no laughing matter,” from readers, Dec. 7
David Smedberg insists that we should gladly accept TSA groping, which began nearly 10 years after 9/11, in order to prevent another 9/11. But this is not intended to prevent terrorists from taking control of aircraft and using them as missiles. Terrorism experts like Bruce Schneier have noted that TSA procedures cannot prevent the types of bomb attacks that future terrorists will likely use.
All we need are old-fashioned metal detectors, combined with the doctrine that alert passengers are the real defense against bombing attempts like those of Richard Reid and Umar Abdulmutallab.
Contrary to Mr. Smedberg’s assertions, it is not an insult to the memory of 9/11 to point out that TSA groping is an expensive infringement on our freedoms that is also unnecessary and ineffective. Thus, we forfeit our liberty for no gain in security.
James Perry
Arlington
Sexual orientation can change
Re: “Pentagon stacked deck on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,'” Dec. 7
Should homosexuality in the military be hidden or affirmed? In English class, we called this the Fallacy of the False Dilemma.
There is a third answer: “Ask, Tell, Get Well.” As the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality I attended noted, sexual orientation is indeed changeable.
America doesn’t have to buy the gay-egalitarian Love Me, Love My Symptoms argument. Skilled psychological help is available not only for homosexuality and transgenderism, but for many other ailments afflicting Americans, both military and civilian.
Sharon Kass
Silver Spring
Fenty’s ‘farewell gift’ to D.C. grandparents
Re: “Cutting grandparent subsidy is penny wise, pound foolish,” Dec. 4
Thank you, Barbara Hollingsworth, for pointing out both the cruelty and stupidity of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to slash a program to help impoverished children living with grandparents and other relatives. The cuts will drive these families deeper into poverty. In some cases, grandparents will have no choice but to surrender their grandchildren to foster care. In other cases, CFSA will confuse poverty with “neglect” and take them away.
Not only will this do terrible harm to the children as they are bounced from foster home to foster home, where they are at high risk of abuse, it also will wipe out the $2.6 million “savings” this cut was supposed to produce. When you add the administrative costs of overseeing the cases to D.C.’s highest-in-the-nation payments to foster parents, the cost to taxpayers for each child will increase sharply.
Costs skyrocket when children are placed in group homes and institutions, which are both the worst options for children and the most expensive. Instead of cutting this real waste, the mayor’s farewell gift targets some of the city’s most vulnerable children in his war against their grandparents.
Richard Wexler
Executive director,
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
