Possibly Disaster For Travelers Avoided With Temporary Resolution
It is not very often that I feel like saluting a TSA agent.
I appreciate it when the smile at me instead of yelling things like “GET OUT YOUR I.D. EMPTY YOUR POCKETS, REMOVE YOUR LAPTOPS” and so forth when I’m going through airport security.
But they are the unsung heroes of the U.S. government’s shutdown. Which, fortunately – for the moment at least – has ended without any major travel incidents.
Had it continued, we could have been dealing with a disaster. Terrorists organizations are constantly looking for weaknesses to exploit and one was potentially developing with the TSA ranks being thinned by workers calling in sick and causing shutdowns at certain airports.
Eventually, something could well have slipped through the cracks.
But most TSA agents hung tough. They worked without paychecks. They went to soup kitchens. They did their jobs.
Those agents took pride in their job and put the security of traveling passengers ahead of themselves. They put in long days without pay and without any idea of whenever they would get their next paycheck.
And for all we travelers criticized the TSA, we owe them a high-five for keeping our airports and airlines safe during the shutdown.
The President, as well as Congress, should know that if no permanent solution is reached, then we could be on thin ice again because the TSA workers cannot afford to miss any more paychecks. They may not be so eager to back to work next time.
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