airportAs if we really needed another reason to loathe the TSA, a grieving grandson has got a doozy for us. John Gross says the TSA agent pawing through his belongings at the Orlando International Airport actually spilled some of his late grandfather's ashes. Oh, yeah, and then she laughed about it as he tried to collect bits of his beloved relative from the floor.

That's the part that fills me with horror today. As each allegation of awful conduct in an airport comes out, it's fairly easy to separate the agent from the agency. Often these are simply employees doing a job. The real menace has been the TSA itself, the agency whose asinine rules these people are charged with carrying out. Usually.

But if what Gross says is true -- and the TSA is acknowledging they're investigating the allegations -- that means a human being faced down a grief-stricken person and took pleasure in his pain. That goes far beyond some inappropriate touching, folks. That's just plain sick.

Of course, the TSA rules do play a small part in this. Gross says the small jar of his grandfather's ashes was clearly marked human remains. Why it was opened in the first place is ... well, it's odd. At the very least, the agent should have handled it with the utmost care.

But I can't shake the sound of laughter in the back of my mind. I wasn't there, but I imagine a cackle, the kind of dark, twisted noise reserved for the evil villains in Disney cartoons. Only someone seriously cruel could find humor in desecrating the cremains of a human being, only a villain would enjoy it.

This may be a "TSA" issue, but it goes much deeper. There seems to exist in their midst a person who will make a bad name for all those other hard-working stiffs on the job. And letting them function around airline passengers doesn't spell success for the TSA.

What bothers you more? That the remains were opened and spilled or that the TSA agent allegedly laughed?

 

Image via cogdogblog/Flickr