Europe, mid-1970s: Bader-Meinhof is in full swing; Palestinian, Armenian, and other groups were planting bombs. Plane hijacking was a new tactic with much news coverage. The modern age of assassination hysteria that started with JFK was still going.

Did we fly like those nostalgic pics of businessmen and their wives smoking and eating steak? No, we stood like scared refugees, with heavily armed military personnel and German shepherds walking around scanning the crowd. I was a little kid in Zurich but remember it well.

9/11 may feel like a turning point in airport security, but it just brought to America what has been happening in other places at other times. And apparently made it permanent.