every word of this

[rm]

More about the TSA mess: http://elusis.livejournal.com/2141915.html

(suggestion to opt out isn't, as previously discussed, workable for everyone, but the analysis of the problems and the reasons why you should if you can is smart stuff)

Comments

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

I found this really powerful, and said so when I linked it on my Facebook. I've already had a comment from someone saying she made arguments they had never considered.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

I just found out that a friend I haven't seen in a while has a job working one of those screeners. I've been having interesting discussions with her. She keeps defending her position on a personal level, getting deeply upset about passengers who scream at her. I feel bad for her. She can't actually see people naked. She wants to stop crying herself to sleep. I wish I knew what to tell her.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Okay, the friend gave me permission to repost a comment she made on Facebook. This is open to discussion. I ask that people just be kind. She's a human being, too.

"I think almost everyone, in almost every job, can always benefit from more training, more discipline, and more professionalism. In every job there are bad apples. And I also know for a fact that one bad experience can cancel out and be remembered better than 10 good/great experiences. Since bad experiences are the ones most often shared with other people, it leads to a general negative image, which means that people come expecting the worst, are sometimes predisposed to see nothing good, and even sometimes more problematic because of it. And the press loves to highlight and spread the gospel of negativity.
A passenger wakes up late, the taxi's slow or there's traffic, the ticket counter has a long line, and maybe for some reason they're on standby without a real ticket. They go to security to find it's a bank time and the line is long, time's running short and for some reason we need to check their bag... the airport is full of stressed people and we stand in the way of getting to the plane and tell people 'no' alot- that rarely goes over well anywhere, much less when there's already stress in play.
I'm technically not allowed to answer, since I'm not an official spokesperson. Everything I've stated are things that I'm allowed to say on the checkpoint in the course of my job and some are *my* personal impressions- such as in my first post. I will say that we are trained and tested throughout the year. Heck, our pay depends on our performance - we're not on the GS scale that other government agencies are.
Alot of my coworker are former (or active reservist) military, former police officers, and other professions that lend their own training to ours. Yes, there are many that come from other backgrounds that aren't nearly as impressive, but hey, I'm from retail."

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, duh - here's the first part:

"As to the patdown, during class my thought was it was very similar to one I got in London-Heathrow in 2007. And I am one of the ones working the body scanners @ Dulles. The images are viewed in a different room, the person seeing the image will never see you IRL, no recording devices are allowed in that room, and frankly, while I can tell if you're a boy or a girl, the images are not sexy by any stretch of the imagination. Heidi Klum and Brad Pitt could be in the machine and I, in that room, would never know. I'm not looking for sexy or body part size, I'm looking for stuff that isn't part of a human body. Oh, and body piercings can be tricky beasts but the only one I still wear doesn't show :)"

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I appreciated the part of her remarks you reproduced in your previous comment, but she lost me here. She's minimizing the possibility of abuses which have already been documented, and the vulnerability of people whose bodies are much farther outside the norm than Heidi Klum and Brad Pitt. Being sexualized is only one of the many concerns about the scans.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

You have an excellent point, and I wonder if she's realized this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ideally, eventually passengers and the TSA screeners are on the same side -- this isn't what they got hired for, and this isn't what we want our tax dollars paying for.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, yeah. She's been a bit reluctant and weirded out.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Yeah, mother jones also made the connection that ppl sat up & paid attention when it was a white dude who bitched about it...

ETA: That sounds kinda critical above, which I didn't mean to do. I think it's got the best roundup of the scope and types of problems I've seen so far (excepting perhaps listing some legal issues) and am boosting its signal as well.

[ravenskye8.livejournal.com]

What I find particularly upsetting is that it seems that no one at any point took any time to think about how this kind of screening would affect survivors of assault, abuse, and related trauma.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the signal boost. I've clarified in comments that by no means do I think this is "the right decision." I'm making my choice, and doing so in a planful, visible way, because I want others to be prepared, I want to influence the discourse, and I know that I have some privileges/lack some vulnerabilities that others have, so I'll take one for the team so to speak, and then be vocal about my experience afterwards.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought you were totally clear about it -- I just wanted to SAY IT AGAIN, because I think it's hard to hear in the noise surrounding the topic.

It's a FANTASTIC piece.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Thank you. <3