I was stopped / pulled aside and searched when I would not take off my flip-flops going through the check I asked for a seat and a clean serfice to keep my feet of the floor and the agent in Hawaii refused to provide this between SFO and Hawaii SFO was better about this. The TSA Agent in Hawaii was rude as he could be and his supervisior allowed him to continue.

I have traveled the world and feel my country is falling into third world status in this situation.

I bet our elected officials are not taking off there shoes!

So now that we have dispensed for the ”
need” for 2 million people each day to remove their shoes and walk through airline security—what of the infirm people for whom this is a great challenge? What of the elderly and disabled people who now contemplate not travelling at all because the TSA has decided—against all logic—to mandate the removal of shoes?

And what of the rest of the 2 million people? It shocks me that those millions of people do not realize that the security checkpoints are distinctly unhygienic. Thousands of people walk through that particular area with sweaty bare / sock clad feet. People then take the bare / sock clad feet that have picked up who knows what from the thousands before them and jam their feet into their own shoes. This from a country that has popularized anti-bacterial spray???

Which leads me to the final point… What is wrong with the country when U.S. citizens are willing to give up any and all rights if it means additional “security”—when no one is looking at whether the additional measures actually deliver more “security”?

Once again, the overriding rule that YOU should be concerned with is the rule that requires you to cooperate with them to allow them to do their job.

I cede the point that if enough people all agreed to act stupid it would make their job more difficult. Is that your point here? Why do you want to do that? Does it make you feel important or intelligent?

If you gave up flying, that would be okay. No wonder the enemy thinks we’re an attractive, easy target. Remember what’s really at stake here. Don’t forget 9/11. Taking your shoes off is humiliating?
For Pete’s sake think about what’s important here? Come on. Get real! And grow up, please.

Secondly, forcing passengers, usually in quite a rude manner, to take their shoes off and walk on a dirty floor is simply humiliating.

“Ma’am, your shoes appear to meet the crieria for additional screening. You may either remove them and send them through the x-ray machine, or be subject to additional screening after you enter.”

Of course, nobody has the faintest idea of what that means, so the TSA person has to add:

“It is probably easier and quicker to send them through the x-ray.”

Which most people do.

Those who leave their shoes on do so for a variety of reasons: fear of fungus, embarrassment about foor odor, problems with authority figures, hatred of rules and regulations, etc.

Most of the passengers who choose additional screening get irritated about it. Many of them insist, as you maintain, that their shoes don’t meet the crieria. This is usually incorrect.

The correct solution would be to require all shoes to be removed unless there is a medical reason or physical disablity involved. Of course, the government would have to provide paper foot covers of similar sanitary measures.

Another solution would be to allow everyone to leave their shoes on. This would be the popular solution, since the public feels it’s more important that they not be inconvenienced than it is that they not be blown out of the sky by a shoe bomber.