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Would you prefer to be voluntarily sexually assaulted or forcibly the victim of a terrorist attack? As awful as it sounds, if you plan on traveling soon, these thoughts will likely cross your mind.Living in a post-9/11 America, we’ve grown accustomed to paranoia regarding air travel.

Since the day those four flights were hijacked by al-Qaeda operatives, we bristle at the thought of terrorists ever being able to take over another plane.

Remembering the pain our country endured, it only makes sense that we do everything in our power to protect this nation from another tragedy of that kind.

But at what cost?

Over the past nine years, many safeguards have been put in place regarding air travel security.

Soon after the attacks, the Transportation Security Administration was created.

To help travelers feel that their pilots were protected, the TSA strengthened cock-pit doors by making them lockable and bullet-proof. More air marshals were also added to flights and a law was passed, banning visitors without a gate pass from passing security checkpoints.

One real way to protect planes was to limit what passengers could bring on-board with them.

The 9/11 attackers had box-cutters. In the years since, terrorists have boarded planes and attempted to detonate a shoe-bomb and, just last Christmas, underwear made of plastic explosives.

Luckily the shoe and underwear bombers were apprehended due to their suspicious behavior and no physical damage was done in these cases.

Regardless, all of these men successfully made it through TSA checkpoints with their weapons undetected and because of them, we have to go through even stricter security protocols- to the point where personal rights are being violated in the name of safety.

One invasion is with the use of full-body scanners.

These machines take x-rays of travelers that allow the viewer to see everything… every curve, every inch… essentially everything you would see had you decided not to wear clothes to the airport that day.

The belief is that these scanners could detect any weapons concealed under clothing or in body cavities. But the thought that somewhere in the airport, some TSA employee just saw you naked and may or may not have saved the image has disturbed many.

Yet according to the TSA website, over 99 percent of passengers choose this screening method to alternative procedures. Doesn’t it make you wonder about how bad the other methods are?

Nearly 385 full-body scanners are in place at 68 airports across the country, with more coming.

But hey, if you prefer not to be seen naked, you always have the option of a full-body pat down! But not the back-of-the-hand, quick check that security previously conducted.

We’re talking legalized groping to check to see what you may be hiding. If this method of screening doesn’t appeal to you, you are out of luck.

Since the new pat-down measures were put in place, there have been countless complaints about aggressive TSA employees causing children to cry, leaving woman feeling invaded, and showing an insensitivity to the elderly and travelers with prosthetics.

Even with the growing controversy over both the pat-down and full-body scanning procedures, the TSA Director John Pistole stands by these methods, claiming that they are the key to protecting travelers.

Ultimately, these new tactics are a violation of personal space and personal rights. But at the end of the day, if you need to travel by air, what can you do?

Safety is necessary and as uncomfortable as these security methods make travelers, we must pick the lesser of the two evils and get on with our travels.

In order to gain the trust of the public, the TSA needs to better guarantee us that the images of the full-body scanners are not saved, nor matched to names. At the end of the day, these machines are less invasive than full-body pat-downs.

When traveling over winter break, we can at least rest assured that the best precautions were taken to ensure our safety.

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