Opinion |

20-something tests airlines

That C-4 tastes a lot like Play-Doh

By Marshall Dury

Posted on Monday, October 20th, 2003, 12:00 am

Leave it to a college student to shake the country up. I’m not talking about staging a mass protest or even a sit-out of some sort. No, I’m talking about grabbing the government by the balls and squeezing – letting them know that we aren’t so impressed with “security.”

A 20-year-old from Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., whose name is not being released, decided that he didn’t like what our government was professing: that airport and airplane security has improved since Sept. 11.

For the hermits who don’t keep up with the news, this young man placed “suspicious materials” on two separate Southwest Airlines planes. The plastic bags were filled with box cutters, Play-Doh containers filled with a clay-like substance that was supposed to visually mimic plastic explosives and suntan lotion bottles filled with bleach. According to cnn.com, a corresponding note was left in each bag stating that the incidents were supposed to “challenge the [Transportation Security Administration's] checkpoint security procedures.”

I say mission accomplished. Part of me knows that this kid shouldn’t have been gallivanting around an airport with box cutters and substances that look like explosives. I’m sure he didn’t appreciate the amount of force and stress the FBI and TSA have put him under with the investigation in the past few days. Something deep inside of me, though, says this kid should be commended for his actions – maybe some sort of a tax break?

E-mails that were used to confirm the young man’s identity said that his actions were a part of the grand concept of “civil disobedience.” I suppose there will be no plea-bargaining if this kid goes to trial, but I like the way he thinks. Was what he did worth the millions of heart rates that increased tenfold after the bags were discovered? Probably not, but then again, the saying goes “be the change you want to see in the world.”

This kid saw something that bothered him. He knew airport security blew just as much as it did before Sept. 11. Was it necessary to take the lengths he did in recreating a tense situation? No. But if anything, the overindulgent recreation only drove his point home all the better.

Sadly, words don’t get shit done. Congress can have countless debates and amendments to pointless laws until the cows come home. This kid did a decade’s worth of political lobbying in the matter of two or three days. It begs reminding, however, that certain laws in this country are set up to protect people. If you have little Johnny College running around trying to prove his political and moral message to the TSA, you open the door to a bunch of other little psychos who may improperly connect their watches to a pile a Play-Doh and blow a plane up on the tarmac.

Deep down, this kid feels like a modern day Robin Hood. Instead of stealing gold, we’re talking about productivity and knowledge. What he’s stealing, though, isn’t going to the poor. Rather, it’s going to the people who need it the most: politicians.

What’s the point in having tighter security at airports if we’re just going to find ways to cut back on work and skim money off the top? If George W. Bush and the cyborg-esque Donald H. Rumsfeld don’t feel like making laws that they strove to implement work for the people, then get the hell out of the way. I’m sure there are enough college students out there who have something to say. It would appear as though college students can get it done without bullshitting the American people.

Marshall Dury is a senior English major.