Long time, no diary entry. Today, though, I just had to speak up.
This column, about the writer's harrowing experience aboard a flight on which nothing happened except that some passengers were from Syria, has been making the rounds. It really got to me -- just not in the way the author intended, I think.
For a nice riposte, check out this piece in Salon.
Done reading? Okay, so that was well said, and on target. It's missing a couple of key points, though. Here's how I respond to those who support profiling.
Profiling is pointless.
The 9/11 hijackers were careful, quiet, inconspicuous men who struck rapidly and without warning. To become concerned about a group of people in matching track suits openly talking and laughing with one another during the entire course of a long flight displays utter ignorance of the psychology of the enemy.
All the writer noticed was the color of their skin, the origin of their passports, and the sound of their language.
This is how we dehumanize. This is how we psych ourselves up to commit atrocities. It must stop.
Profiling is bad math.
Here's where the argument for profiling breaks down. If 99.99% of profile group A is non-terrorist, and 99.95% of profile group B is non-terrorist, then it is fair to say that terrorists are 5 times as likely to be a member of group B as they are to be from group A. So let's go arrest all of group B, shall we?
Heck, let's tip the numbers even more. Let's say group A is 99.99% non-terrorist, and group B is 99.0% non-terrorist. Now, out of every 100 terrorists, 99 are from group B! Holy crap, seal the borders!
In both cases, virtually any profile-based arrest, stop, harassment, search, or other "preventive measure" will target an innocent person. 99 times out of 100 in the second case, and 9,995 times out of 10,000 in the first.
What can be done? How about...talking.
When I fly, I notice everyone who gets up and heads for the forward lavatory. I also have a revolutionary strategy for dealing with unexplained behavior: I talk to the people involved. Try it sometime.
Turns out that, so far, 100% have been kind human beings who had no idea they were scaring people. One had a bad knee and couldn't sit for more than half an hour at a stretch, for example. I reminded him in a humorous way that loitering near the front of the plane these days wasn't the smartest thing a guy could do. He laughed and agreed, never venturing forward again.
What if I talk to someone who does, in fact, mean us harm? I am ready to do what the passengers of Flight 93 did, and I know many of my fellow passengers are too. This is the legacy of 9/11 for me personally, that using a plane or a bus or a train or a bridge may call for me and those with me to do the extraordinary. It's not like talking will make such a situation worse.