Readers React: Who cares about long lines at the airport? TSA agents not getting paid is the real problem

To the editor: All the focus on longer security lines at airports because so many Transportation Security Administration agents are not showing up to work is misplaced.

The real problem is that people are working without pay. How do you pay for gas to get to work without a paycheck? Pay for food to eat before work? Pay for childcare while at work? These are the real problems.

If you don’t have money to pay for essentials by earning it with a paycheck, then you can’t get to your job.

Long lines at the airport are not the problem. The lack of safety and security that are due to these unpaid TSA agents is the problem — and it is a problem that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and President Trump can fix by enacting the bills passed by Democrats in the House.

Sarah Turitto, Cardiff, Calif.

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To the editor: Monday night, as my wife and I went through customs and other screenings at LAX, the officers mentioned that they were working for nothing so they might as well go home. One affable fellow said, “I’ll come to work tomorrow if I can scrape together the money to put gas in my car.”

Thank you, President Trump, for a nightmarish shutdown that is hurting everyone but you.

Arthur Stone, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Approaching 91, I never thought I’d live to see the day that slavery would come back to America. Forcing federal employees to work without pay is the very definition of slavery or involuntary servitude.

Where are the lawyers?

Anthony Lawrence, Woodland Hills

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