To the Editor:
Re “At a Checkpoint, Facing Terror Fears and, Now, Testy Travelers,” by Dan Barry (“This Land” column, front page, Nov. 23):
We have sunk to a new low in this nation when we allow personal squeamishness to trump airline security. For too long we have avoided any measure of shared sacrifice as we struggle to fight terrorism at home and abroad. As we spill blood and money abroad, a small but vocal group of our own citizens is unwilling to do its part.
Are people so personally insecure that they cannot cheerfully endure a pat-down before boarding an airplane? Is there no sense of a shared commitment to keeping our nation safe?
The recent flap over tougher security measures is a sad reflection of a self-indulgent nation in decline.
James Aloisi
Boston, Nov. 23, 2010
The writer is a former secretary of transportation for Massachusetts.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 