TSA upgrade

The era of easy air travel is over for the foreseeable future, but a sensible improvement to software in full-body scanners at least represents an important step toward a more tolerable boarding experience at the nation's airports.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will begin installing the software upgrade in the coming weeks in millimeter-wave scanners. The amended machines now will display a generic outline of a human body, highlighting any anomalies that must be checked further, and will enable both the security officer and the passenger to see the same image.

This is a far more reasonable concession for the traveler to make in the interest of enhanced security than to submit to the existing system, which displays what essentially is a nude image of the passenger's body. And that scan is visible only to the TSA employee, which adds a layer of distrust to an ordeal that already makes so many people uneasy.

But if the last 10 years of homeland security vigilance have taught Americans anything, it's that there is no silver bullet that will erase our vulnerability to terrorism.

Even with the advances in full-body-scan technology - a necessary component of the national security plan - the system is less than ideal.

Intelligence gathering and good basic detective work still need to be central in the national efforts to enhance security.

Nearly a decade after 9/11, the U.S. is still struggling to find the right balance between assuring public safety and maintaining normalcy. The new, less invasive software tips the balance back toward equilibrium only slightly, but it's welcome all the same.

- Star Advertiser, Honolulu