Smokey, McGruff, and Stephanie

USA Today reported that the group behind Smokey the Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog have developed a new campaign to convince people of the need to go through inspections before boarding airplanes. Evidently, people aren't as compliant as they once were and are especially annoyed at having to remove their shoes. So, they are bringing in "Stephanie the airport screener" as part of their new campaign.

Back in 2001, I flew to Kansas City for a conference about 2 weeks after 9/11 (much to the dismay of Dorene). However, if ever you wanted to pick a safe time to fly, it would have been then. I remember going through the airport check points and no one had any complaints. Heck, I think you could have made people wait 2 hours per person and they wouldn't have minded. Check my luggage? Sure. Check my shoes? No problem. Leaving the plane, everyone was thanking the pilot and just being so polite overall. I was impressed how quickly the TSA was put together and how well everything seemed to work.

It's now been 7 years since 9/11, so it's easy to understand that people would return to getting more annoyed by the prospect of missing their flight than it being hijacked. Will there be another attack? Well, the two attacks on the World Trade Center took place 1 month and 9 months into a new President's administration. Hopefully Joe Biden is incorrect and something will not happen within 6 months of Obama being inaugurated to test him.