I want to use my final response post to say thank you to Cathy for her third response post, which talked about TSA.

As someone who has worked in TSA’s Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs on multiple occasions, I can assure you that you don’t get the level-headed and well thought out response to screening procedures that Cathy’s post demonstrated. Instead, you get a lot of complaints (some warranted, others not) and a lot of people with short tempers and no intentions of listening to what you have to say, and thats not even being on the front line.

I unfortunately think that a lot of the backlash and media attention directed at the TSA in the week leading up to Thanksgiving was due to a slow news cycle and a few “stink stirrers” that wanted to ratchet up some displeasure from the traveling public. I think that it was the perfect storm for TSA to hammered in the news and from an outsider looking in I feel that their Public Affairs office did a good job in handling the negative media that was coming their way.

In total there are over 50,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) working at the airports to ensure that the traveling public in this country is safe. Sure, there are going to be a few that rub people the wrong way, just like there is always one person in your office that runs you the wrong way, but that doesn’t mean that they are all bad. Being a TSO is a pressure packed job as you are not only trying to safely and quickly get everyone through the security checkpoints, you are also trying to keep all potential threats and dangers to the transportation network off of the airplanes and out of the hands of passengers. I personally respect every TSO that shows up at work every day, knowing that they are not always viewed very favorably, with the goal of keeping our transportation network safe and I try to show them my respect every time I travel.

Next time we all travel through the airport maybe we should look at the TSA in the same way that Cathy did in her post. Remember, these people aren’t there to try and grope you or see you naked, they are there to try and keep you safe. And keep in mind that on an average trip you’ll come into contact with 5-10 TSOs. Those same TSOs will see 1000s of passengers a day and I know if I had to see that many people a day it would be great to see at least a few smiles.

Thank you for your post and your thoughtful point of view Cathy.

For my first response post I wanted to, as promised, respond to one of Amanda’s posts on country music. I chose to respond to her Weekly #10 blog post about the site that she is most thankful for. The reason why is that I think there is something she missed.

Before I do that I want to go into a little bit of personal history. I was born in Maplewood, New Jersey,and lived there until I was ten, at which point I moved to Virginia. Upon moving to Virginia I was thrust into this world that was heavily into a new to me kind of music that I wasn’t too fond of, that music was country. As I grew up I told myself I would never like country music and I would never be like the people (or my stereotypes of them) that listened to country music. I stayed pretty true to my “northern roots” and steered away from country music for the next sevenish years until my hatred of country music came crumbling down around me, and all because of a girl.

It was in the latter stages of high school and I was dating a girl that was pretty into country music. Unfortunately (or so I thought at the time) this same girl was also set on converting me to a country fan. I resisted as much as I could and made fun of the music at every chance I got, but as the days went by I found myself starting to like country music. I started knowing some of the artists and catching on to some of the songs, and I even started programming a few of the country stations into my car stereo. Before I knew it, I actually liked country music.

The thing I liked the most about country music and the thing that keep me listening to it today is that it tells a story. It can be fiction, non-fiction,happy, sad, about beeror about a girl, but much like I did right above this paragraph, it tells a story. That is the one thing that I think Amanda left out of her write-up on country music, though I would venture to guess that she is fond of the same aspect of country music.

Nowadays, I’m not ashamed of the fact that I like country music and to finish my story I will leave you with one that is sung by one of my favorite country artists, Darius Rucker…