You got to love the TSA and airport security

I’m sitting in IAH airport in Houston waiting on my one hour (at least) delayed flight; just a quick day trip to Dallas right?….Uh No!

First I slept through my alarm by a half hour….no big deal kind of planned on that (more of a norm than I care to admit). When I arrive to the terminal I’m greeted by a one hour long security line. I began to think “what was going on”…oh the NBA All-Star game….must be increased traffic from that right? When I ask around I find out it’s actually like this all the time. Seems the TSA doesn’t ever work overly fast in Terminal B. I can accept this, after all there are keeping me safe right?

So I’m in the security line (I’ve been waiting for about 30 minutes) and all of a sudden the TSA person says “if your flight departs in the next 10 minutes you can come to this line”. I’m thinking that’s odd, all those people who got here later are just going to the front of the line and making me even later…I then think that’s ok I wouldn’t want anyone to miss their flight. Then I realize there are people waiting around for the next announcement…I ask a seemingly frequent business traveler what the deal is, and her replies…oh they have a special gate set-up for late arrivals, if you just wait over here until they call you can just go straight in and bypass the line. This sat uneasy with me, but again ok, I don’t really fly a lot so it really doesn’t affect me much. Funny thing is when I got to the front of the line, I realized the “short-cut” line was empty so I asked why, and the TSA agent says oh that’s for late arrivals because the line is so long. Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out if they would just open the line all the time the line would be shorter? Maybe I’m missing something but seeing those four TSA workers sitting around doing nothing after I had been in line for almost an hour did not set well.

As I get to the 50 minute mark of my wait a TSA supervisor steps out and begins to “lecture” the line with a condescending and overtly nasty tone…commenting on how we needed to be smart among other things. This kind of gross power trip is something that usually doesn’t phase me at the airport; I simply expect it form the TSA. However today it really sat wrong as this gentleman who couldn’t get close to a complete, let alone grammatically correct sentence (my grammar is not great so believe me I ‘m not throwing stones) lectured me on b being “smart”…I began to realize what a joke the entire airport security system really is. Oh I know it seems to make you somehow “feel” better to take your shoes off as you pass the metal detector, but really it’s a JOKE! And as to put a star on this point: I’m sitting here in the terminal and I have seen two, not one but two Leatherman tools which are supposed be contraband on the plane. Funny thing is one of the guys with his tool I know when through the line being run by the “lecturer”.

That’s my morning…off to Dallas now, my plane just arrived!