A False Sense of Security

Seaside Pavilion

Last night my husband and I attended an outdoor concert held in a popular Maine beach town. The promotional material promised we would be "thrilled by the music while enjoying cool ocean breezes." 

That sounded nice, and worth the 45-minute drive to get there. Turns out the place was nowhere near the ocean, although we knew for a fact that the ocean was a couple of miles away, or twice as far as it is from our own home. So much for the breezes....

Anyway, there we were and it was a lovely night. The parking lot was a considerable distance away and so a shuttle bus, quaintly called a "trolley" by all staff members, was required to get us to the venue. As we neared the trolley, a woman stationed by the door stopped us and asked, "Are you carrying any pocket knives?" 

"Certainly not," we replied, somewhat surprised by the question. Did that mean that if we had a box cutter or a pistol we were good to go? As she waved us aboard I asked, "What if people lie and say they don't have a pocket knife, or something worse?" 

"No worries," she said, "the metal detector you'll have to pass through will sort all that out." Only there never was any metal detector. You just showed your ticket to a little old lady and walked on through. In fact there was no form of security anywhere in or near the open-air theater, which was smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood with no barriers surrounding it of any kind. 

Happily the great state of Maine has never had a mass shooting event, but if it ever did, the Seaside Pavilion in Old Orchard Beach is a sitting duck.