Terror in a sippy cup

I have been following the story of Monica Emmerson who was supposedly harrased by security over a sippy cup full of water Reagan National Airport on June 11th.

MSNBC
ABC News
Parent Dish
you get the idea, I am sure there are more.

Mandy and I moved to Italy in the winter of 2000 shortly after marrying Jeff. We traveled all over Europe and Africa. We moved to Japan in the winter of 2002 and we did a fair amount of travel throughout Japan, we went to China, Jeff went to Vietnam, we came back to the US several times including once to Hawaii. We have traveled on ships, planes, trains, buses, taxis and even driven ourselves around all these foreign lands. Lily was born in the summer of 2003 and has been drug along with us since her birth. In all these travels I have never broken a single law or security rule. I plan my trip and what I will take, what I will carry, when I will feed my children, around the security and customs of the places I am going. I even have a kid who is allergic to everything and still I am able to arrange for her to eat and drink in foreign countries without breaking any laws. I am offended that this mother feels she does not have to follow the rules, because her kid is thirsty.

How long does it really take to go through a security check point? Why is it that the security people do not allow sippy cups full of water onto airplanes in the first place and why are the security people focusing on toddlers instead of Arab men? We all know that the terrorists are Arab men so why is everybody picking on this poor woman anyways? This is the real reason I am so upset by this story.

While we were living and traveling overseas before Sept. 11, 2001 we were shocked by how much more security there was in every other country in the world as compared to the US. Jeff and I used to speculate that something would have to happen in America for the security to be increased and even then we weren't sure Americans would be willing to give up convenience for security. I am pretty sure everyone who ever traveled to another country wondered this same thing. Terrorism has been happening all over the world, trains, planes and automobiles have always been targets. So what does this all have to do with a sippy cup with a little bit of tap water...

One time we were visiting Egypt and our tour guide Sammy was apologizing to us for the incipience of all the security measures. He was especially apologetic to Mandy who was ten at the time and me. He told us how badly he and the male security people feel about having to search women and children. He told us about how there have been terrorist attacks against tourists and how the majority of the Egyptian economy is based on tourism. How if people were too scared to come to Egypt to see all the ancient temples and pyramids that there country would starve. So they have spent years and all of their combined intelligence keeping the tourists of Egypt safe. At first they didn't search the women and children. Mostly out of respect, because it is very much against their culture to search a woman. But, then the terrorist started using women and children. There were women and children who were coerced and some who were convinced. The government felt like they had killed those poor women and children. By allowing an opening for the terrorist by not searching women and children they made those women and children an easy target for the terrorists.

Many credible media sources have explained this to the American people many times. It makes me upset that so many seemingly credible media sources take this story of a woman who breaks the law and sensationalizes this story for ratings and doesn't do any homework or research, they just assume that the security people are assholes on a power trip to detain a poor woman and her toddler for a little bit of water in a sippy cup. By making sure that everyone is searched, even the little old ladies, even the screaming toddler, the government is making sure this people are not targeted by the terrorists as the hole in our system. We have men and women dying for our country and I don't think it is too much to ask to empty the sippy cup before you go through the security check point. Is it?