My high school graduation class, Evanston Township High School Class of '64, was featured in a double page spread in Life Magazine. In case you don't know, Life Magazine was the iconic weekly photo magazine of the 20th Century. As usual, half of my face was hidden behind the graduate in front of me.
I remember walking a mile through the snow to ETHS because I didn't want to ride the crowded school buses in Chicago winters. Kind of like Abe Lincoln of the 20th Century. I still remember the fight song. ETHS we will fight for you, for the right to do everything for you. Today that means contributing to the alumni fund.
Every day that I go to work in the 21st Century is a calculated risk. I supervise a crew of Transportation Security Officers who inspect checked baggage for concealed IEDs at LAX. Take my advice, never speak the word "bomb" at an airport. I remember my first passenger in October 2003. She came up to my inspection table and said, "My bag is about to explode." I thought, "Is this some kind of test?" Then I realized that her bag was stuffed to the gills, its seams about to rip from the strain. I told her that burst was a better choice of language at the airport. Odds are one day one of us, at some airport across the country, will find one and it will be a good day for the American transportation industry but it will not be a good day for the TSO, and the Supervisor who find it. You can't outrun a blast from a high explosive.
I remember walking a mile through the snow to ETHS because I didn't want to ride the crowded school buses in Chicago winters. Kind of like Abe Lincoln of the 20th Century. I still remember the fight song. ETHS we will fight for you, for the right to do everything for you. Today that means contributing to the alumni fund.
Every day that I go to work in the 21st Century is a calculated risk. I supervise a crew of Transportation Security Officers who inspect checked baggage for concealed IEDs at LAX. Take my advice, never speak the word "bomb" at an airport. I remember my first passenger in October 2003. She came up to my inspection table and said, "My bag is about to explode." I thought, "Is this some kind of test?" Then I realized that her bag was stuffed to the gills, its seams about to rip from the strain. I told her that burst was a better choice of language at the airport. Odds are one day one of us, at some airport across the country, will find one and it will be a good day for the American transportation industry but it will not be a good day for the TSO, and the Supervisor who find it. You can't outrun a blast from a high explosive.
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