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• Friday, July 11, 2008 02:05 PM

  Sometimes lax - sometimes super vigilant

  The worse times to go through airport security are when they're training new workers, and when things are slow. I think they are required to open a certain number of bags. So when things are show, my luggage almost always winds up with one of those little "we've looked inside" notes. That totally frustrates me because I KNOW they can see inside the luggage with their machines and there is really no need to open the bags at all! Also, slow time or new trainees, more often than not they pull out these little gadgets to look for whoknowswhat on our picture IDs. It doesn't matter if it's a license or a passport. What the heck are they looking at?????

  I travelled over July Fourth weekend and went through Chicago's O'Hare Field. There I saw signs entering the airport grounds that cars could be subject to searches. And, while going through the TSA crap, we were told we had to carry out boarding passes.....after we already had that screened a few feet behind us! The car searching was something new to us.

  But, no one asked me to take out my now grubby plastic bag so they could inspect it to make sure nothing in it was objectionable or more than 3 oz. Nowadays, in fact, I seldom remove it from my carryon and no one asks about it. Another bunch-of-bull regulation.

  My favorite part of that trip, though, was the new luggage. We had purchased a set of three in Chicago, intending to replace the set we were travelling with when we got home. Since our old set was already packed, we simply put a couple of bags (one which contained a new necktie my husband purchased)inside the nesting set of the new luggage and then checked it. Oddly, there wasn't a "we looked inside" note inside, but we KNEW they had opened it because that necktie (instead of being inside the bag with something else) was set out neatly on top of the second piece of luggage inside. Guess they just HAD to make sure there really was nothing (or not much) in that large suitcase than containd a smaller suitcase that contained an even smallter suitcase!

  Will there be any relief? My dream is that the next president will eliminate the Dept. of Homeland Security and, with it, the TSA system---or, at least drastically reduce the force and procedures. But I doubt it will happen. Even if the Democrat is elected, he won't have the guts to do much of anything. After all, the people of this country really think "they're keeping us safe." Idiots!

  Keep up the battle, Patrick! And some of us will try to do the same from our end of the security line.

  —greenholdt Read greenholdt's other letters
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