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I watched--we all watched--as an elderly couple, a man and woman in their 70s or 80s, were ordered out of line to be searched. They were old, frail, embarrassed. They stood 40 feet away from us, their shaky arms held wide as they were wanded by a low-wage worker not endowed with enough human grace to show them sympathy or respect. The old man and the old woman were forced to take their shoes off when everyone knew--we could see it--that it was hard for them.

There are many people to blame for this situation at airports where elderly Americans are being searched. Democrats and the ACLU have been vehemently against racial and ethnic profiling for years. I don't think Democrats will give up their opposition to profiling until the Capitol Building in Washington is bombed.

They're against racial and ethnic profiling but complain that nothing was done when an FBI agent in Phoenix reported that Arabs were enrolled in flight schools. They want it both ways.

Democrats and the ACLU have been vehemently against racial and ethnic profiling for years.

Perhaps this the should be presented as 'criminal' profiling. The enforcement agencies need to frame the issue differently. They need to get the concept that 'criminal' profiling is for the 'protection' of society.

That the various law agencies are pursuing criminals that are within the parameters of the witness's accounts. That the searched, the questioned, the restrained are within the particular 'criminal' profile for that specific crime.