Airport security goes after wrong people

I have been wanting to say something for a long time about the inequities of being searched at airports, Seatac, in particular.

I have heard others talk about how they can go right through security, even when they’re carrying a cup of coffee, their purse, etc. I, on the other hand, can never make it through without being bombarded by airport personnel, ordered to wait, forced to go through when they’re good and ready and in the manner they try very hard to dictate.

Often what I am carrying in my hand is taken from me without permission. If I do “slip” through before they can stop me, I am automatically wanded, without permission. If I ever make it through airport security anywhere I feel like I’ve gotten away with something because 99 percent of the time, I am automatically treated as a criminal and if I don’t kowtow, they call even more security.

Meanwhile, the truly dangerous people obviously are getting right through. And why the difference, you ask? Good question. I am blind and carry a white cane. Evidently airport personnel are taught to beware of anyone who is different who is carrying something “unusual.” The problem is a white cane is not at all unusual for me; it is a tool of independence.

have been so upset by the custodial, patronizing, demeaning, over-concerned, sometimes downright paranoid-acting airport personnel, that my daughter, who comes a couple times a year, doesn’t have me go to the gate with her anymore when she leaves. She knows I worry the nearer to the airport we get, wondering how demeaning the treatment will be. She also feels self-conscious being with me, partly because I’m her mom but also because she doesn’t like being singled out like that either. When she’s by herself, she goes through security without a hitch because she can see and doesn’t carry a white cane. You know what? I really doubt if the people who perpetrated this travesty on all of us were blind, at least in the physical sense.

Mill Creek