Last week, Indian Envoy Meera Shankar got a dose of the “Post 9/11 America,” when she was felt up in a most undignified manner at the Jackson, Mississippi airport. Ms. Shankar was, to put it lightly, appalled.
Poor Ms. Shankar thought that the whole thing was because she was in Mississippi. I could see why she might think that, but unfortunately she doesn’t realize that even the most civilized and advanced places in the United States have the same hall monitors running things.
When Shankar got back to India, she apparently raised a high holy fit about how she was treated. (source) And after the diplomatic row, the governor of Mississippi issued an apology to Ms. Shankar. (source) Of course, since the TSA is a federal agency, she may as well have gotten an apology from David Letterman or Barney the Dinosaur. Nevertheless, the apology was nice:
“I have spoken to Ambassador Meera Shankar and expressed my concern on behalf of Mississippi for the way she was treated by the federal Transportation Security Administration personnel while she was in our state. I assured the ambassador that I have taken up the issue with the TSA and with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. I hope to see whatever necessary procedural changes made within TSA that make our visitors feel welcome and safe in the Hospitality State.” (source)
Rogier van Bakel had an appropriately snarky comment:
It’s nice that Ms. Foreign Dignitary got an apology. So far, no apologies have been issued to the masses of unworthy American plebeians. Those damn commoners may be groped with impunity.
