The Quote Didn’t Fly

It’s enough to make one remember fondly to the time when we did not have a Secretary of Homeland Security.
Don’t get me wrong: I like Janet Napolitano. But I woke up this morning to her quote about the crisis in skies, or more specifically our most recent near-miss. “The system worked,” she said—and then she worked overtime to insist she was talking about everything that happened after the incident in question. She told “Today” today that the system “did not work” beforehand. Right. I get what she’s saying, but it all smells a bit too much like the famous “Heck of a job, Brownie.”
The homeland security chief’s luck will turn on whether anybody was paying attention during the last week of the year. Otherwise, the phrase “the system worked” could resonate, because it reminds people of the disconnect between what their government says and what it’s like actually to live in the real world.
Speaking of the real world…I was flying recently and I noticed something: it sucks. Bigtime. Especially for anyone flying out of a New York City airport. There is a feeling of being under siege from start to finish. The security atmosphere costs us something, so much so that each time I stand in that line I think of two people, both fictional: Archie Bunker and Bill Maher. Archie used to suggest arming all the passengers. Maher, doing his newsy HBO shtick, says we should have an airline where people can just take their chances and not have to go through security. I like Maher’s idea…and Archie’s is growing on me.