Politically Correct Airport Screening

Re “New Security Gets a Stamp of Approval,” Nov. 28: The United States will never even come close to preventing would-be terrorists from boarding our commercial airliners until we start using common sense in screening passengers. The little girl pictured being scanned at LAX is only one of thousands of examples of our misguided, politically driven aversion to any kind of air-traveler profiling.

I myself have witnessed toddlers younger than this girl and old people pushed to boarding gates in wheelchairs getting searched right down to their bare feet, while far more suspicious-looking passengers, including myself, waltz through unchecked. This isn’t about prejudice. It’s about the public welfare. And while I’ll continue to fly, the mostly worthless security procedures now in place don’t make me feel any better about it.

Tim Bornheimer

Los Angeles