Why is DIA security such a dumpster fire?
Why does your fine city inflict such misery on travelers flying out of Denver International Airport?
It’s been three days since I navigated the lengthy security line for outgoing travelers and I am still completely dumbfounded at how bad it was.
This was a Friday evening flight, in May, in the lull between the ski season and summer travel. It shouldn’t have been a two-hour ordeal. And yet, those of us leaving the West Terminal had to make a complete lap around the baggage claim floor and then endure endless zigzagging before finally getting to the TSA checkpoint.
People did not know where the line began. No one was directing passengers or preventing line jumpers. No one at the airport could say why there was such a backup. An email query to DIA communications generated no response.
Social media shed some light. A tweet of mine caught the notice of a consumer travel publication editor. His perspective: security at DIA is generally a “dumpster fire.”
There is no excuse for this. Airline data is available to guide the Transportation Security Administration on the number of travelers leaving at a given time. This information should guide staffing and other preparations. DIA also does not have enough dedicated space for queuing travelers, a problem requiring a swift fix.
I shouldn’t have had to pay for Clear, a service that provides a preferred traveler status to negotiate security lines more quickly. Those going through standard security have a right to expect competency at a major airport.
Competency was in short supply Saturday. Do better.
Jill Burcum, Cannon Falls, Minn.
Vote for a clean debt ceiling increase
I want Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper, and Rep. Diana DeGette to vote only for a clean debt ceiling increase. Default is not an option — it would cause Social Security checks to be delayed and collapse the economy, costing millions of jobs and wiping out many people’s retirement savings.
The House Republicans’ bill with draconian cuts would do equal damage to Americans and the economy. It would also repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the only thing standing between us and climate catastrophe. It cannot pass.
Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling with no strings attached and then work on a budget that keeps climate funding intact and can win bipartisan support.
Sandy Kaminsky, Denver
As our national officials play chicken with our Social Security payments that a large portion of us use to pay bills, one hopes that they remember many of us will likely be voting in the 2024 election.
George W. Krieger, Parker
The constitution is crystal clear: “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” False analogies abound in Congress, but the government has a moral and legal obligation to pay its debts — just like private citizens.
The debt ceiling “issue” is a manufactured crisis. If the president takes unilateral action and orders the Treasury Department to keep writing Social Security checks, the opponents who manufactured the crisis will have no legal recourse. They can’t sue because they are not “injured parties” in the legal sense. The public will applaud, recognizing that a functioning government is preferable to political posturing.
Ray Harlan, Aurora
