Calm like a bomb

The only thing worse than yesterday's 102 degree weather was being stuck in long Metro lines on the Red Line due to suspicious packages. Thankfully, your correspondent was not. Dupont Circle, Woodley Park and Cleveland Park stations were all closed during the hottest commute of the year. While it is becoming routine to have bomb scares and threats in this quintessential terrorist target, there are steps the Metro Area Transit Authority can take to assure a quicker and safer commute, no matter how many cardboard boxes are forgotten on the train.

A cost-effective solution is to buy a robotic bomb-exploder for each station. Automatic External Defibrillators have become standard for medical emergencies; WMATA should take the next step and put safety in the hands of the people as well. Locked inside a glass box, the bomb-exploders would be available for use whenever a suspicious package is found. And of course, commuters would use them for good, never for evil. There are positive externalities of incorporating bomb-exploders as a standard. Current Metro employees are notorious for not caring about the Metro. I sympathize, because such a job cannot be exciting and holds little satisfaction. Now add "blowing up shit" to the job description and watch productivity, and bad-assedness, improve.