We’ve all heard stories and rumors about TSA workers abusing their positions, full-body scanners that don’t work well (or really at all, apparently), and the like, but I came across this very well-written piece titled TSA Agent Confessions.  It is written by a former TSA employee who sheds a lot of light on the current state of the agency.

Most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency’s day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.

It’s a tricky balance to decide how much of the blame falls on the front-line employees.  As long as I am being treated with respect, I usually do my best to treat the actual agent with respect, as a human being, regardless of the policies that he or she is being forced to implement.

Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.

The article isn’t short, but it’s definitely worth a read.