I woke up in a San Francisco hotel room on September 11, 2001, and the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were already over. Brave passengers had already sacrificed their lives to stop a fourth plane from hitting another target. The air-travel system had already been shut down.

So I did the only thing I could think of doing: I went to my laptop and bashed out a column that set out my desire to fly again because that was exactly what the terrorists didn't want me to do.

And now, a decade later, in the midst of media's obsessive desire to make us "reflect" on what happened on that awful day, I wonder how I could have been so naive. I wonder why so many people responded so positively to what I wrote, why the column was reprinted so many times in so many places. And I don't know a single business traveler who wouldn't give anything and everything they own if it were only September 10, 2001 again.

No one will remember this column or want to reprint it. It will not inspire confidence or defiance. Because when you have 10 thoughts about travel since 9/11, none of them are happy and none are particularly hopeful. The world in general, and the world of travel in particular, hasn't fared well since 9/11.

1. We're Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Airport security before 9/11 was silly, annoying, and not particularly effective. But at least there was the presumption of innocence. The rent-a-cop security screeners were mostly looking for contraband. But no matter the stated policy of the Transportation Security Administration, the agency's approach to security is self-evident: We're all guilty until the screeners prove us innocent. It has made airport security infuriating, dangerous, and not particularly effective. Since all security is, essentially, a retroactive judgment, the TSA can claim to be a "success" because no aircraft have been attacked on or above U.S. soil. But the TSA will immediately be judged a "failure" whenever and however a plane is eventually attacked. Either way, the 99.44 percent of us who want nothing more than to fly from here to there in peace will have been treated like criminals.

2. The TSA Proves Government Isn't Working

I believe now what I believed on 9/11: As a nation, we had no choice but to federalize airport and aircraft security. Keeping flyers safe was and is a matter of national security. But the TSA is a textbook example of what Americans hate about modern American government: It is hopelessly bureaucratic and it is abusively unaware of its own failings. Worse, it seems to be revel in violating the clearly stated boundaries of its mandate. The 2001 legislation that federalizes security and created the TSA also specifically envisioned private, third-party players offering a "trusted traveler" program for low-risk frequent travelers. The TSA not only smothered the early private players that tried to offer those plans, it has now embarked on its own government-run trusted-traveler scheme. The TSA's enabling legislation also specifically created an opt-out mechanism for airports that wanted to run their own security system. Without prior notice or justification, TSA Administrator John Pistole shut down that option too.

3. September 11 Changed Everything

It's a cliché, of course, but 9/11 and the mentality it spawned really did change everything. And none of it for the better. We have to squish our toiletries into little bags and tiny bottles. We have to rethink how we dress at the airport. We have to flash photo ID at hotel check-in because our credit card and frequent-guest card aren't enough. Scissors, corkscrews, paper and box cutters and all sorts of useful traveling tools are suddenly weapons of opportunity. A loved one with a friendly face can't meet you at the gate anymore. I recently read a blog post by a man who complained he wasn't allowed back on the plane after disembarkation to retrieve a Kindle he left in the seat pocket. Getting back on a plane to retrieve a forgotten item wasn't always a security threat. You can't find lockers or mailboxes at airports anymore. The list is so long that we've actually forgotten all of the inconsequential niceties we've lost since 9/11.

4. The Bad Memes of 9/11

The 9/11 "truthers" and conspiracy theorists don't bother me much. They're too crazy to worry about. But I despise the bad memes that 9/11 has spawned. Like the one about how former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is a security expert. He's the politician who built the city's emergency operations center under the World Trade Center—even though it had already been bombed in a 1993 terrorist attack. Or how about: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims"? Wanna tell that to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing? The friends and families of the Unabomber's targets? Try that line in Norway now that some Christian crusader type bombed central Oslo just so he could get to an island camp and kill dozens of young people.

5. The "Israeli System" Fallacy

I admire the comparative efficiency and effectiveness of the methods that Israel uses to keep passengers safe. But not only isn't the Israeli system foolproof, it is not scalable or transferable to the United States. Anyone who looks at the Israeli system carefully knows this. Israel spends about eight times more per passenger on security than we do. And we'd need about 3 million security workers to duplicate its effort. But if you still think Israeli-style security will work in the United States, I'll pay for your plane ticket to Washington so you can ask Congress to octuple the TSA's $8 billion annual budget and hire more than 2 million additional employees.