Brother Tom

While in Illinois Karen and I had an opportunity to chat with younger brother Tommy T. Sweeten. He is a very funny and insightful former coal miner who always keeps us laughing with his humor. He missed his calling as the "Ernie Bum beck" of southern Illinois.

Tom wrote this piece as a letter to the editor of the Mt. Vernon Register News today. I am not responsible for Tom's comments or his views so don't sue me.

To the Editor:

Yesterday I (drove) over to St. Louis to catch a flight to Phoenix. I have flown many times out of dozens of airports around the country but this was the first chance to watch the Transportation Administration in action as an observer instead as a participant. I, of course, couldn't go past the security check as I didn't have a ticket so I watched the process from the "sidelines" so to speak.

The first thing that I noticed was the number of TSA personnel present. There must have been 20-30 people in the TSA uniforms, this at 7:00 pm on a Saturday evening in a nearly deserted East terminal at Lambert.

Another thing was the fact that most were reading some sort of newspaper or magazine. It didn't seem that any of these "defenders of freedom" had any interest in stopping some bomb toting terrorist, it seemed they were more concerned with the latest sports scores or what The Donald and Rosie had to say about each other.

There were probably 5 passengers at the security check point waiting to go through and each and every one of them had to remove their shoes, coats, hats and empty their pockets. Now, one incident of a man trying to light a bomb in his shoe about 4 years back and we are still taking all footwear off, including open toed sandals.

One of the TSA employees came up to me with a tube of toothpaste and gave it to me and said: "Your wife had this in her luggage, it is 3.2 ounces and she is only allowed 3 ounces". I dutifully accepted the contraband and hastily exited the airport for fear of a major strip search and having to remove my shoes, socks, bra and garter belt.

It would seem that the patients have taken over the asylum. I can send a 400 pound package through airfreight on the same plane without so much as second glance from the TSA but can't take a 3.2 ounce tube of toothpaste with me. I have scratched a hole in my head trying to figure this out but to no avail. Does the term "Swallow an elephant but choke on a gnat" ring any bells?

Now Tom may not think his trip down the Rabbit Hatch was very beneficial but I disagree. On January 15 I fly to Prague for a week and on to Moscow for ten days. You can rest assured that I will not try to take any big tubes of tooth paste with me.

Thanks, Tom