This week, I’m sandwiched between a trip to the LA area last week and one to Vermont next week. And after the flight in and out of Long Beach, I’m less than thrilled about the upcoming opportunity to spend the equivalent of two entire days in airports and on airplanes.
It wasn’t always like this.
I cannot remember details from the first time I flew. I was way too young to remember back that far. I know I was a toddler. I remember that I was excited enough about it that I just about drove my poor Mother to drink. She arranged to have me sedated before I flew the next time! I was a toddler for the first four or five flights of my life. And I loved it. That happens when you are a military brat.
Flying was still very exciting for me for the next four decades. There was joy in each flight, even if, as the government was de-regulating the airlines they were more fully regulating the lives of those who flew places on those airlines.
And then came September 11th and the government’s “failure” to keep us all safe from creative killers bent on destruction. This led to unprecedented meddling. And frankly, all the joy was sucked out of the experience.
I used to envy my brother with the better than perfect eyes who got that waiver for his bad knees and spent 20-years flying for the Air Force prior to retiring to fly 737s for Southwest.
I can no longer imagine why my brother wants to be a pilot. These days I see him as a glorified bus-driver with a terrible work schedule.
I’m especially appalled when my brother tells the story from the day after that idiot tried to light his shoes on fire. My brother had a bottle of favorite (and very expensive) cologne he carried in his pilot carry-on. Now remember, he flies the plane. He is also rated to carry a firearm. But he had to give up the cologne because that was the rule de jour. Clever.
As any military brat knows – better even than their uniformed parent, it may take a committee or a corporation to really screw things up, but if you want something fouled up beyond all recognition, it takes a government agency.
A corporation, at least, starts with a profit motive and some idea for meeting a need. A corporation usually understands both the “invisible hand” of the market and human behavior to some degree. They begin with the hope that their product or service will be desirable to some of the people some of the time.
A government agency starts with a mandate of force. The government agency begins with authorization to either make something happen, or stop something from happening. They set off with platitudes and jingoistic slogans and build intrusive processes that would make Rube Goldberg jealous.
And they suck the life and all the awe and delight out of the product or service.
I was once a boy who dreamed of flying fighters and keeping the Free World free from tyranny and oppression.
I am now unable to stomach the miserable experience we calling air travel.
I’d rather drive a snarled Southern California Freeway under construction during rush hour!
I fear that “We the People” will never regain any control of this mode of transportation and inject any life, let alone enjoyment, back into it. Any pleasure I felt for soaring above the clouds in an aluminum tube with wings and motors attached died shortly after September 11!
Like so many of the rising generation, I do enjoy the simulated experience. Today's youth like the video game experience. To me there is nothing like Disney's simulated rendition. But then, even with the long lines on hot days, it isn't as unpleasant as the oppressive experience at the real airport.
Do you know the worst part? You can’t prove that we are any safer today than we were before we created the TSA.
It is one thing to make the conscious decision to give up rights or freedoms to secure the well being of citizens. I may think it is silly and misguided, but at least it is a weighing of priorities and giving more weight to one element than another.
It is another thing to give up the freedoms only to find that the elusive security sought is a pipe-dream.
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