Flying anywhere in the world is becoming more invasive and inconvenient all in the name of safety, yet flying on an airplane is more dangerous now than ever before.

Imagine it this way: You have your bags, packed for the next two weeks. You laptop bag is slung over your shoulder, your planned carry-on is stacked on your suitcase that is being drug behind you on those extremely convenient wheels. And you are standing in a line that is, if it weren't snaking around all of the poles, at least 100 feet long. You quietly ask God to bless whoever invented luggage with wheels.

Your six-year-old says, "I have to go to the bathroom." Luckily your spouse is very understanding and drops his bags off with you to take him to the bathroom. This now leaves you with another large bag that you have to move with your feet as the line moves because your hands are full.

After half an hour in line, you finally get to check in. The attendant at the desk informs you that you will have to check three bags because your laptop and your purse count as your two carry-on items. Then she quickly adds $25 to your bill and charges you $75 for the checked luggage. You get your boarding passes and move along.

Next is security. You think that you are getting ahead of the game by taking off your child's shoes first, then you take off your shoes, belt, earrings and necklace, empty your pockets, take your laptop out of the bag, take your camera out of your purse. You are ready for metal detectors galore. Then you and your family are directed to that new horrible machine that takes pictures of you that you may not even let your husband take.

You think to yourself, "This is for our safety, let’s just get this done quickly." First your child goes in. He follows the directions perfectly and he moves through. He is led away from the machine and momentarily out of your sight. Then you go through. When you are done you find your son and stand next to him. The security officer informs you that your son had something abnormal show in his picture, and according to policy they have to pat him down.

"But he is only six. Why do you need to pat him down?"

"It is just policy, ma'am. I'm sorry."

The officer starts to lead your child a few feet away to a mat. Your son gets worried, he doesn't understand what is going on. The officer is trying to explain it to him, but he starts to protest.

"Mommy, I want you. What's happening, Mommy. No! I don't like you, go away." The officers won't let you hug him because you could take the imaginary bomb out of his shirt. You and your husband just have to stand there and watch.

It takes less than a minute and you are all on your way.

On your way to the gate on your boarding passes, your son is in your arms the whole way. You console him as you walk quickly. Your adventure through security has made you tight on time. When you finally get there, you see that only two of your three seats are together, but it is now too late to change them because most of the passengers have already boarded the plane.

Everyone is tired, frustrated and you just want to get on the plane so you don't have to worry about anything else going wrong.

You get situated on the plane. Your son is calmly looking at a book. You look behind you to see who your husband has the lucky joy of sitting next to on this four-hour flight. Then you lay your head back and relax for just a minute.

The pilot announces its time to get on the runway. The plane starts to move. The pilot announces that you are second in line to take off.

Suddenly, you are jerked to the right. You hold on tight and instinctually reach over for your son. The whole plane has moved. What just happened? You check and your son is fine. Next you look behind you to make sure your husband is ok. He is. Is anyone else hurt? Can we get up? What just happened? We were still on the ground, right?

After the flight crew has come to check on everyone, all passengers are informed that a much larger jet clipped the tail of this plane while taxi-ing into the gates. This flight will not be taking off today. You must go back to the airline desk to find out if you can make another flight. If there is no flight, you will have to start all over the next day.

There has been a rash of incidents where either planes are clipped on runways, planes are crashing in oceans, planes having mechanical problems in the air, flights are delayed and canceled because of faulty machinery, control tower attendants falling asleep on the job, and who knows what else has happened that the public doesn't know about. Why is all of this happening?

Is all of the focus on possible terrorist attacks taking the focus off of other safety issues?

With the end of the semester less than five weeks away, students are planning trips home for the summer, extravagant summer vacations to Brazil, India, Spain, or maybe just Texas. Maybe some of us are going to visit grandma in Wisconsin, or to see brother and sister-on-law's new baby girl. No matter what the plans are, so many of us will be flying to get to our destinations.

But going through airport security, especially with a child or two in tow, is time consuming, frustrating, embarrassing, and can all together be traumatic. So why is all of that necessary if the plane itself, or the people controlling it, are not doing their jobs right in the first place. Why should we have to go through that kind of security just to not be safe on flights?

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