Many SLF have been through even greater background checks
Several prior postings have touched on one of the issues that, if carefully considered, would show the unreasonableness and ineffectiveness of the airport security process vis-à-vis the countrywide security process.
It is obvious that flight deck and cabin crew on commercial aircraft are a special case for TSA to consider. But, many of we SLF are regularly in a position of authority or responsibility to cause as much or more immediate physical, psychological, and social damage to the US than are aircraft crew. On a daily basis we are given unlimited, due to extensive screening similar to what you pilots experience, access to equipment that could cause grave injury to hundreds or thousands of persons. We are trusted every day of our working lives yet we must endure intrusive screening just to get on an airplane.
I used to fly as SLF many times a week and had done so for many years. During that time I held many high level US security clearances which gave me unlimited physical and logical access to computer and control systems at military, airport, and utility facilities all over the US – yet I had to be poked, prodded, and x-rayed every time I wanted to fly to work on those systems.
Now I am retired and am entrusted with yet more precious cargo. I regularly transport hundreds of school age children all over the western US, Canada, and Mexico as a charter bus/school bus operator. I am certified to operate large buses for any school district in my home state and regularly do so by showing only my ID and drivers license.
I just present myself at a school district transportation office, show my IDs and am given the keys to a bus and hundreds of children’s lives. I could cause far greater psychological and social damage to the US while driving my bus than I could by damaging an airplane as a passenger. Yet I am still poked, prodded, and x-rayed every time I want to fly.
I regularly drive heavy military trucks and buses around the US West. Those vehicles frequently contain weapons and often dozens of military personnel. Again, I present my credentials at a military motor pool, where no one knows me, and I am given full access to the vehicles, weapons, and military base. I am trusted on a daily basis by the US Army and Air Force yet I am still poked, prodded, and x-rayed every time I want to fly.
There is nothing unusual about my work situation; millions of Americans are trusted to do similar work with similar security clearances yet none of us are trusted to board an airplane as a passenger.