Explaining Terrorism

This morning we are taking our grandson to visit his Aunt Emily and her husband Michael and to go to Disneyland tomorrow. As we found with our own kids Mason wanted to take some favorite toys with him on the trip. So we got a separate bag to carry all the junk. But before we got to the airport we had to look through the bag to make sure that everything would pass TSA muster. We had to judge which things would make it through the X-rays. We left the Batman small sword and his weapon - although I am pretty sure they would have gotten through.

What was most interesting was to try to explain why these rules were necessary. Mason asked "Can't we just explain to them that all my toys are just toys?" We said, "No there are rules here." He said "Why can't they think a bit more carefully?" (This is a very verbal kid) In the end that one is impossible to explain - bureaucracies run on standardization. But we did try to say that the rules came about because some bad people did some bad things on airplanes. He concluded that was sad. I think he meant both because of their behavior but also because of the consequences for the rest of us.