The Email I sent to my senators and Representative. It took about 20 minutes to type this up and send it to all three (greetings changed, of course). I hope everybody can take a few minutes and do something similiar:

Senator xxx,

As an airline pilot, I have seen great challenges in the past 8 years. Terrorism, mergers, bankruptcies and now sky-high oil prices have caused a lot of uncertainty.

Recently, a report came out that fewer people are flying. The reason isn't costs, but the hassle. A major source of this hassle is the TSA.

The attacks on 9-11 required us to take a look at how we handled airport security and also required a dramatic change. Tighter checkpoints and more scrutiny of passengers is an unfortunate need in these times. However, the TSA does not provide this. In recent weeks there have been a number of breeches including a homeless man on an aircraft at Lambert St.Louis International and a 10 year old being caught by gate agents in Seattle after observing the security checkpoint and sneaking through.

My question is this: If a 10 year old is capable of doing this, how can we not assume that professionally trained individuals who mean to do harm are not capable of this? What's worse is the fact that this same 10 year old did the same thing last year.

Every day I have the displeasure of dealing with TSA agents. What I encounter is often rude, ignorant and indifferent agents making their own rules to flex what little muscle they have simply for causing a hassle. I've had agents inform me incorrectly of rules, such as the absurd 3-1-1 rule, which doesn't apply to pilots. I've also been required to get a boarding pass to commute to work in Indianapolis despite being in uniform with a valid ID. More and more resources are taken from the normal lines to establish the Clear system, where we find at least three agents standing by doing nothing, in addition to the many standing in the vicinity of the checkpoint waiting to move a few tubs.

With the summer travel season upon us, we have enough to worry about without having the consistent ineptitude of these agents. They are responsible for safety of air travel yet time and time again they have proven regardless of location or time that they are no more capable than the privatized security in place on the day our country changed forever. I hope that congress can take a close look and realize that the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

Respectfully,
Pilotpip