Years ago, we used to have a feature on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher called "Get Over Yourself." It was given to the person or place most in need of lightening the fuck up. There's nothing that needs to lighten up more than airports -- or more specifically, our national attitude about airports.
I flew back to Los Angeles from Portland, OR last night on an airline that shall remain nameless (hint: the name rhymes with "Horizon Air, a regional carrier for Alaska Airlines"). When my wife and I got to the airport, we were informed that I was checked in but she was in danger of being bumped off the flight because it was oversold. I reacted to this news by informing the agent I felt that this was "unfair." The ticket was pre-purchased. We were traveling together. It was the last flight of the night and we needed to be on it. I was firm but I wasn't overly aggressive -- no cursing, no loud talking, no six vodka tonics before boarding (three, max). Plain and simple, the woman behind the counter was being a derogatory term for the female anatomy. I asked if I could speak to a supervisor, to which she replied, "Go sit down or you can talk to the police." After I wondered aloud if Sting and Stuart Copeland were on the flight, she repeated herself. "Go sit down or you can talk to the police." Yep, she was serious. She was trying to turn a minor disagreement into a jail-worthy confrontation.
On my way back to my chair, Carol Gotbaum popped into my mind. In case you forgot, she's the woman who died while in police custody in the Phoenix airport. She's been on my mind ever since a friend told me last week that he knows the family. And it got me thinking. Is this what it has come to in America? If I dare to demand that a contract I entered into with a service provider be honored, they threaten me with the police? Airports aren't airports anymore. They're Communist China.
If you want evidence that the terrorists have already gone a long way toward achieving their goals, look no farther than American airports. We have become so oversensitive at airports they're close to becoming college campuses. I mean, sure, taser a kid for yelling at John Kerry. If that kid had gone any farther, he could have ignited an open exchange of ideas. And we can't have that at our educational institutions. But don't threaten me with the cops because I want some decent service. Imaging being turned away from a sporting event because they sold your seat twice -- doesn't happen.
In America it seems like we react with senseless emotion first and logic way later, if ever. Think about terrorists in airports. Have they ever gone out of their way to call attention to themselves? No. They do to the opposite. They try to blend in. They HIDE AMONG US. They don't reek of booze or act demanding in line. And by the way, so far, none of them have been 45 year-old soccer moms from the Upper West Side on the way to rehab.
Last night, if I didn't have a couple of kids to get home to, I might have requested that the airline employee call the police. I could have told them that someone was attempting to steal from me. I paid for something and then that person I paid refused to give it to me. You can go to jail for that. I just wanted a cramped seat in coach on a musty airplane with a bunch of farting sleeping old people (I know it was you, lady in the orange sweater).
It's not really airports that need to get over themselves. It's us as a society that has turned these dung heaps of human misery into modern Indian burial grounds -- walk with respect and don't look sideways. The terrorists hit us once. Hard. They changed our way of life. I have the confiscated bottles of Aveda Confixor to prove it. But can we just take a deep breath and realize that even in these bad times, people still have bad days, even at airports. We've suffered enough. Let's not live by the motto "Don't freak out in an airport -- OR YOU MIGHT DIE."
They are clueless.
Sister
In recent tests something like 75% of the test articles were not discovered by the screeners. I no longer put my liquids and such in the plastic bags. Just leave them in my carry-ons. If you know a little physics it is not hard to conceal them from the screeners.
I avoid getting involved in any banter with the TSA people. Just keep quiet and avoid them unless they force you to answer a direct question.
As to the quality of the in-flight service, blame that on deregulation. Deregulation means there is no minimum price so airlines compete with each other to provide less and less service for less and less money. If you want to have a nice experience fly business class or first class. Of course, it will cost you a heck of a lot more. But that is the point. When the government set a minimum price then airlines competed for your business by offering amenities. Now with no floor on the price they cut every corner they can to attract customers with the lowest fares.
Just curious.
And yet, I don't see any of THEIR planes falling out of the sky.
Gee, shouldn't they be more scared? Like us?
We are 4.5 years into our second oil war. If air travel wasn't so cheap there would be low-cost surface travel alternatives. If we didn't have to work to make and buy so many useless consumer goods that we would be better off without, we could work fewer hours per year and would be able to take time to take a week to travel to Europe on ship rather than on a 10-hour flight.
The thought process behind TSA'a creation is purely republican. Without his goose stepping brown shirted neo Christians, none of this crap would be possible.
We allow these goons to rummage through our belongings without a shred of evidence. We allow these Gestapo types to strip search our grandmothers and grandfathers and then kill those that resist. Isn’t it about time we put a stop to this BS?
After more than an hour of interrogation, she was told that she had to leave the airport immediately and that she could not even claim her bags. If she tried to return to the airport, she would be arrested!! She was absolutely dumbfounded as to why she was being treated like a criminal and being threatened by these rent-a-cops!
For the record, my sister is an RN at a major hospital in L.A., a white girl who was born and raised in the U.S. She did not deserve to be traumatized by a bunch of "security" thugs who basically terrorized her!!!
This is happening a LOT more than people realize, and it's clear that these brain-dead losers with an IQ of 10 are bullying and harassing people everyday, sometimes to the point of murdering them. How many innocent people need to be terrorized or killed before this insanity is stopped????