Many cars at the Edmonds ferry terminal will soon face random inspections or dogs sniffing for explosives
It seems to violate the right to privacy guaranteed by our State Constitution, but advocates point to the Constitutional exception for an “express order from the federal government … or if there’s a threat showing special circumstances.”
The federal order comes from the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, which requires new security plans by next week, and the threat from the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.
We need to be as careful of threats to our civil liberties as we are to threats to our security, but I don’t see an inspection in line for a ferry as any more intrusive than the airport inspections we’ve had for 35 years, inspections that have been more thorough in the last three years.
I’d rather have an explosives-sniffing dog keep fireworks from getting onto ferries than have some inspector stop grandma from carrying fingernail clippers in her purse at the airport
In 2002, random searches of vehicles boarding ferries by the State Patrol were heavily criticized and eventually discontinued following opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
Mike Thorne, head of the Washington State Ferries, told the Herald Monday that the agency already has been conducting security sweeps and passenger cabin patrols in recent months in preparation for the July 1 federal deadline.
Raising higher education
Edmonds, Shoreline and other community colleges are bearing the burden of enrollment limits at the state universities. As enrollment limits have forced the University of Washington, Washington State University and Western Washington University to turn away thousands of qualified students.
Many students have the money or financial aid to go to an out-of-state or private college. The community colleges must absorb the rest.
But where do community-college graduates go after two years? One answer is having a university center on or near a community-college campus, like the Central Washington University center on the Edmonds Community College campus in Lynnwood or the UW-Bothell Campus that shares its campus with Cascadia Community College. Those upper-division campuses offer majors in the liberal arts, education and business, but what happens to those who want to study specialized subjects?
That’s where the state has to expand programs at state colleges or provide the aid to start them at private universities.
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Lynnwood, Wash. 98036
E-mail: entopinion@heraldnet.com
Fax: 425-774-8622
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor.
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