Exodus from JFK
We made it out of JFK Airport a few days ago, not imagining that the slow-moving lines could be as bad as the news broadcasts were saying.
I saw one report that the wait at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) was three to four hours long. At JFK, our plodding line from start to finish was close to 90 minutes. And as I explained to one of the TSA agents who are working without pay, that at the end of the day, the real problem was not too many travelers or a lack of agents; the problem was one of incompetence.
Many TSA agents do their job diligently, but the supervisors and managers over them appear to be mostly mindless and nonsensical. Yes, it was Tuesday and the ICE officers were there. That seemed to calm things down a bit and who knows? Maybe it speeded things up by an hour.
It seems that these newly instituted policies (that are hopefully temporary) are meant to punish people like us, ordinary citizens who need to travel. For example, at JFK the TSA PreCheck line was closed.
Once you qualify for TSA PreCheck, you don’t have to take off your shoes, jacket, or hat. In addition, you can leave your iPad or laptop in your carry-on bag. But since PreCheck was closed due to the government shutdown, it means that everyone was forced to remove their shoes, take their laptops out, and remove their jackets, which means that as the line grew longer, the process slowed down. There’s no sensible reason for that because moving PreCheck customers along faster speeds up the entire process for everyone. So, there is only one reason why things are being done this way, and that word is a descriptive one that is often used by President Trump. And that word is: Stupid.
So, if the line in Atlanta is four hours long, it could be cut in half except that the people running the place are stupid. And if this so-called “confederacy of dunces” in our government has a leader, it would be Senator Chuck Schumer. He hates President Trump to the point that he cannot even consider the pain he’s causing regular people. He’s got to get Trump. Nothing else matters.
Once we exited the TSA line and went to the Jet Blue gate things went back to normal. With yom tovapproaching, if you’re planning on flying domestically, you would need to leave earlier than normal and prepare to hear people complaining about the long lines unless Schumer comes to his senses, which doesn’t appear to be likely any time soon.
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
