Letters to the Editor
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Flying as a Squalid and Unpleasent Experience
First--good job. Very apt commentary on the ridiculous.
However, do you know why, we--the travelling business class--put up with it?
1) Get to your destination, do your job--or your fired (maybe a stretch, but that is the deal with your employer).
2) Putting up a fuss will cause you to miss your flight, and non-refundable tickets are--well--non refundable. See Item 1.
3) See item 1. See Item 2. You get added to some secretive blacklist where you are subject to unwarranted searches, wire tapping, and other Gestapo methods this criminal government has dreamed up. I pity the guy in the tee shirt.
3) Who do I complain to? Hand wringing, bribe taking, uncaring government representatives. Please--shouting at a wall will get me farther...
The simple fact is you HAVE to put up with it because the downside is ruininous, and there is no recourse.
However, I do drive when I can get to the client within twelve hours. So, I guess THAT is the only power you have: vote with your dollars. That is, until state borders are dotted with: "May we see your papers, please?"
ed
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Why Are There Terrorists?
Because fear is a powerful motivator and it works. I agree with the writer who pointed out the goal of the terrorists isn't to kill people. That's just the tactic.
Bush isn't totally off the mark when he says "Terraists hate our freedoms," because their goals are to make us nervous, wary, and paranoid enough to change how we function as a society and to get us to exchange our freedom for security. Our government has played right into their hands on several fronts and our elected officials are using it for political gain.
The attack on 9/11/2001 accomplished exactly what Osama binLaden wanted and the current administration is willing to play along because they can play on the fear of the public and pretty much do whatever they want without question like implement stupid and pointless rules about not allowing liquids on aircraft.
So Patrick, given that most airline passengers fly infrequently, what can we do to stop the insanity? I suppose one route would be to speak to our Congresscritters, but short of hundreds of thousands of people doing that, it's not going to go anywhere. Should we stop flying? How many people can we get to do that? You said we have power, how do we wield it?
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Only mad dogs and Englishmen
When I saw America's response to 9/11, I said that the terrorists already have won. And I made statements similar to your security guru's. But, since The Current Occupant is not a leader of the stature of the man who said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself.", I realized that America was being handed over to clear extremists and people with a skewed vision of reality.
So now I'll drive 13 hours to Denver rather than fly. That vision of a protest is probably as futile as an airport sit-in but at least it keeps my stress level down and allows me to take the stuff I want with me on a trip.
In the world of Electronic Countermeasures, the professionals know that for every new ECM technique or device, a counter measure will be developed (or ECCM). The same is true for people who wish to perpetrate terrorist actions. The only way to remove the threat of terrorism is to remove the reasons why the terrorists chose to fight. Neither guards nor checkpoints will ever provide real security.
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I've given up
I'm an American citizen who grew up in Hong Kong and went to boarding school and college in the US in the early to mid-80s, flying back and forth up to three roundtrips a year. I had legroom. I had friendly air hosts and hostesses. Friendly fellow travelers. We could even walk all the way around the plane - no first and business apartheid! I used to do endless laps to stay loose. Gee, you could even have a cigarette. Don't really miss the plane stinking, but the atmosphere was a hell of a lot nicer...
Now I've quit flying almost entirely. A slight problem if you're a senior advertising executive, but hey, tele-conferencing beats the living shit out of any American airline I can think of, and with airports the way they are, even Singapore Airlines or Virgin Atlantic are no fun. I just can't put up with losing 3 hours out of my day at each end of a trip, plus being treated like a dangerous moron at every step of the way. Surely I'm EITHER an idiot OR dangerous?!? Oh, and if I make the tragic mistake of traveling with my English wife, I can guarantee we'll both be shouted at for about an hour - if we both go in the US citizens line, we get it in the neck. If we go separately, we get it in the neck for 'pretending to travel separately' (quote: TSA asshole at Cleveland Hopkins, August 2004.) 2 months before, we got SCREAMED at by some hysterical donut muncher at LAX for going together. Also TSA. I've asked the US embassy in London 5 times for advice. It's been different every time.
My sisters and parents live in the States, along with all my other relatives. They all know that I'll only set foot there again if I can afford a ticket on the QE2, or for weddings and funerals.
You know what? Fuck the airlines for their spineless hand-out cringing bullshit. And fuck going to the US. I'll just watch it on TV. Can't wait for George W. to up the handwringing factor to scare us all shitless as the elections approach. Not that the Democrats will do anything else. There's no point protesting. The bastards 'won' on December 13 2000, and we all deserve it because we didn't stage a coup. Our old country is gone forever kids. Hillary, McCain, whoever, ain't gonna make a goddamn bit of difference. The courts are stacked, the people are scared, and we're all broke. Welcome to the fouth reich.
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Well, okay, but I flew two days after the scare...
As one of the travelers that flew two days after the British liquid explosives plot got busted, I have to plead a mixture of necessity, frustration, and pure unadulterated happiness.
Necessity, because I needed to get to Boston, so I needed to do what was necessary to get on the plane and to my destination. I don't know about your airport, but mine has a sign that prohibits joking about the searches and restrictions, on pain of arrest. Not about to complain and get to Boston from that one.
Frustration, because the airlines (American) emailed us all to be there 2-3 hours early for the flight (read 5:30 to 6:30 AM), and their baggage checking people left us standing in line until 7:15 until they showed up to check our luggage, AND forced a situation where the people who had been waiting the longest had to go to the end of the line and the people who had defied the request and just got there got checked in immediately.
The Pure Unadulterated Happiness? As someone who has travelled a lot both domestically and internationally both before and after 9/11, I can't find the words to express the feelings of elation and freedom at not having to put up with the pushy, aggressive owners of the carry-on steamer trunks who make everyone boarding the plane wait for them, and who absolutely crush my small carry-on bag to fit their should-have-been-checked clothes-for-2-weeks suitcase in to the overhead. I sincerely wouldn't mind if they banned carry-on forever, and if the airlines were forced to figure out a way to let people like me check my laptop without getting it back only able to type 'Q' and '&' with little red rectangles all over the screen.
And maybe it's the last of these that says why I haven't spoken out for your civil rights this time. Nothing personal.