Originally Posted by phoebepontiac

I agree that it's a good discussion... has it gotten to these points at that site? When I looked it was all "bad mom, doesn't care" stuff. My sense from the video, though, was not necessarily that they were in a hurry, but that they were caught off guard, got intimidated, and were cowed into submission by the guard's demeanor and power trip. And then, the molestation happened so fast it was over before they got over their deer-in-headlights state.

I've been thinking about an amazing irony here -- I would never, ever allow this to happen to my two young children and for that reason I'm not going to take them on a flight until I'm confident it won't. And, of course, I'm horrified to see it happening to other children. However, I have the utmost respect for these parents. They found themselves in a crazy situation, under duress, and a bad thing happened to their daughter. They weren't prepared to stop it, which happens to all of us at times in our lives -- when we know better, we do better. But the dad (or whoever filmed) had the balls and the presence of mind to capture one of the most clear and shocking specimens of TSA abuse to date, and they put it out there in the world. Because of the parents' actions, including letting it happen in the first place, there's a chance of this stuff getting dialed back for real so that my own kids can get on a flight again to visit their grandparents.

I owe them a huge debt of gratitude.