It's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid. Among all the negative threads, you tried to point out something positive and other forum members went out of their way to still cast that in a negative light.

That, to me, is indecent.

That's a very strange sense of what is decent and what is indecent.

Making critical comments on an internet chat board is indecent but accepting a paycheck week after week for a job that requires one to do so many things that are admittedly stupid and wasteful (like throwing away mother's milk) is decent?

I agree with the OP's statement that many (if not most) screeners are decent, ordinary people, but I also agree with another poster that it's a job with many indecent aspects.

Please lighten up. Most jobs have indecent aspects, including my own. Many people would agree yours does too. Why do you have to take it so personally?

You have failed to define one aspect of the job that is indecent. You haven't even defined what is indecent. Some of the policies are pretty dumb. But nothing about this job is indecent.

Manipulating lives, controlling relationships, divorcing yourself from morals in order to achieve a certain objective; yes, these things are indecent. I used to do that in another profession and was pretty good at it.

TSA is nothing like that.

Calling airport security screening indecent is just one more example of how we as a society have become whining little wimps.

Try that shoe on for size.

You expected a different outcome?

Thanks for the positive report, though. Most of the TSA folks are decent, hardworking people.

How's this: I define arbitrary, secret, everchanging rules and mysterious blacklists to be indecent. Depriving a baby of mother's milk is also indecent.
Really?
Try replacing the word "communist" with the word "terrorist" and "communism" with "terrorism" and let me know how it reads. Call me a crybaby if you will, but I see a lot of parallels.

In fact, I think the DHS/TSA has found roughly the same number of real terrorists as the number of real communists found by McCarthy. Keep up the good work checking those flip-flops for bombs!
Sounds familiar. We've had a Red Scare. In fifty years will we be calling this decade the "shoe scare" or the "liquid scare"?

I agree.

"You haven't even started" can be considered rhetoric for "you've barely started with the indecent aspects of the job".

Can't you share some too? I've barely started.

I mentioned in passing that there were indecent aspects to the job, and you created a beast by baiting discussion about that. To me, what is indecent is the jumping on a negative item in one post and then using that to bait a discussion to paint a picture to your heart's content.

You asked for it, you got it.

A positive report is going to invite some "balance" .... in the same way a critical report invites apologists.

Thank you for the positive post, Gatwick Alan. And thank you, Bart. Always enjoy your level-headed commentary.

As for the negativity here, would you expect anything less?

Is your glass half empty or half full? Or two times too large?

I remember a distraught adult daughter escorting her mother on a trip. When we asked if there was anything we needed to be aware of before we began screening, she mentioned that her mom was senile and just the mention of this upset her. She began crying. So I pulled her aside out of public view as much as practical and sat with her a while. She continued to cry but eventually regained control. During that time, she talked a lot and just got things out in the open. We spent quite a bit of time together. I guess speaking about personal things with a total stranger was what she needed. She thanked me for listening. I guess others in here would criticize me for spending so much time with someone who wasn't being screened.

Another time, there was a mom worried about her autistic child and how he would respond to the screening process. I got one of our elderly screeners who had a very deep yet soft grandfatherly voice and a grandfatherly personality to match to screen the young boy. They hit it off famously. The mom was thankful that we were so courteous and had spent an extra effort to make her son comfortable.

Then there was the time when a lady couldn't locate her necklace. We looked in all the usual places where things like that fall and were unable to find it. She was particularly upset because it was a gift from her daughter. I asked her to give me her flight information just in case someone found it and turned it in to us. Sure enough, someone pointed out that there was something sticking out underneath the x-ray machine. I was able to take it to the gate, find the lady and return it to her. She teared up in appreciation, hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

There was the soldier who was wounded in Iraq who had been medically released from Brook Army Medical Center. He wasn't what I'd call moody, but he wasn't exactly Mr. Personality. And no wonder, his legs were amputated and he still bore a lot of the scars from his wounds. Still, as he was wheeled out of the checkpoint, each screener along the way extended a hand and said thanks. You could see the change in his expression, but I imagine he was still dealing with a lot of pain.

Yeah, a lot of what we do is indecent.

I'll be the first to say that there are many good screeners across the country. The problem is that the 20 to 25 percent that are power hungry jackasses taint the whole bunch.

Now, for your list:

Manipulating lives: The TSA manipulates my life every time I pass through a checkpoint.

controlling relationships: The TSA controlles the relationship between myself and the airline and car rental companies when I decide to drive 7 or 8 hours instead of flying. That also controls my relationship with my family.

divorcing yourself from morals in order to achieve a certain objective: Screeners do this every day when they follow Kip Hawley's idiotic rules.

Face it, the TSA is an overblown workfare program to attempt to employ as many unemployable people as possible. Not all TSA employees are unemployable, but I'd say at least 75% of the entire workforce is unemployable at their current salary and benefit level.

Flying out of ATL yesterday after a misconnection due to broken lav door (finally fixed with duct tape!) there was a family of mom, dad and 3 kids who all were under 6 or so behind me in the security line. Every now and then (like every 20 seconds) a TSO barker would come out from the screening area and yell out "Everyone have your boarding passes out! Take off your shoes, coats, jackets, hats, gloves and sweaters and put them in the x-ray!"

As I putting my laptop back into its bag, one of the vacation brood came through the WTMD and it beeped. The TSO lady YELLED at the little kid "Go back through there and come back inside again and DON'T TOUCH the sides of the machine!" The mom was horrified that someone would speak in such a fashion to a 5 year old. One of the other TSOs kinda yelled at the woman..."You ought to be ashamed of yourself yelling at a little kid like that! You sounded like my 3rd grade teacher!" I didn't see what else happened but the fire in mom's eyes and way she yelled "Hey, you--come HERE!" to the TSO who yelled at her child led me to beleive that someone was going to be taken down a peg or three.

This has to do with neocon political crooks in congress and the Bush regime exploiting and trumping 9/11.

There are indecent aspects to the job. Not everything done by TSAers is indecent.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only reason the TSA exists today is that Comrades Tom Daschle (C- S. Dakota) and Dick (aptly named) Gephardt (C- MO) insisted on holding up any post-9/11 legislation that did not include this disgusting workfare program. No "neocons" nor anyone in the Bush "regime" insisted on this at all. I fact, they fought it.

Nice to see that you don't let your bitterness towards our current president get in the way of your emotions.