I think that there are some Professional (or at least want to be as Professional as Possible) TSA Employees, they are just hampered by the rules/regs of their employer and that is a lot of the problem right there.

There are also some Light Hearted Ones and that to me says something that I have believed all along, people are people and some are going to be power trippers and some are going to be jerks and some are going to just go through the motions and some are going to be Professional and some are going to be Light Hearted, as that is the nature of us, human beings.

My preference would be for TSA to be more light hearted as an Agency, is that in the cards? I highly doubt it, but it would be nice.

I recently, came across a really nice TSA Employee and I was impressed at how she really worked to be as nice and helpful as possible. She spoke at least three different languages (that I heard) and instead of doing the usual keep yelling to the person who does not speak English until hopefully she/he understands, she spoke softly and tried if she could to speak to them in their language.

It was impressive because it is not how I have witnessed TSA Employees in the past deal with passengers who do not speak English, every other time it would seem the defacto process was to yell at the person who does not speak Englishn until they hopefully understood or either another passenger, airline employee or some other airport worked could translate. It was different because it was Professional and I complimented her on it and she said something that stuck in my mind. I would hope that if my Grandparents who do not speak English were to come to a checkpoint like this one someone would try and communicate with them in their language if they could, not just yell at them in English, so I do the same for others as I would like for my Grandparents

She remembered that we are PEOPLE and not all would be bad apples, she treated each and everyone of us with respect and while I may not agree with how TSA does this or that, I do feel that being respectful should be part of the equation. My few negative run ins with TSA, I always feel like I am being treated like a would be bad apple, rather than just another person.

Coming back around, if TSA had the mantra of the people being screened are just average ordinary people and not under suspicion (i.e. we are all not bad apples), than being light hearted could be a two way street, as opposed to right now where the passengers note light hearted TSA Employees, but we ourselves find it hard to be light hearted at a checkpoint because everything we say can bring about negative consequences or at least negative responses from TSA Employee.

As usual, just my two cents.