Yesterday was supposed to be my day of relaxation. While I did watch plenty of football on Sunday, some events occurred in the morning that concerned me.
The Chicago Cannonball took a flight to Washington, DC, for work. There was a “problem” involving a “security issue.”
Neither of us know exactly what the problem was, but for about a couple of hours I was worried for her safety. While this was not 9/11, or even the Bruce Willis movie “Die Harder,” it could have been.
I travel a lot on business. Although it pays me a decent living, my dad on many occasions has said, “You fly too much.”
I don’t mind flying. I am a well organized, well oiled machine. I travel light, with no luggage. One carry on bag holds everything. The time I get to the airport to the time I get to the gate usually takes about 15 minutes. I sleep well on planes, and often get upgrades to First Class.
Yet today I am thinking of an expression my Rabbi tells me. “There is no such thing as an Atheist in a bear market or on a turbulent plane.”
The Chicago Cannonball is fine. She does not get rattled easily.
Normally I do not either. Yet for some reason, this set of events was taxing. To be 3000 miles away, and unable to do anything, forced my mind to think some disjointed thoughts.
For one, I hate airlines. They might be the only big business I hate besides record companies. I am under no illusion that the only reason I get First Class upgrades is because so many people higher than me on the food chain have given up on the airlines.
Forcing people to pay for food in coach is disgusting. Also, ticket prices went up when oil rose in price, but crashing oil prices have not lowered fares.
As somebody who worships capitalism, I believe that companies should charge whatever they want. However, collusion is illegal, and the airlineas are masters at collusion. They call it price leadership, but we all know what that means for airlines.
Also, the hub and spoke system is atrocious. Non-stop flights are fewer and fewer, and I do not want to stop in Atlanta or Charlotte to go from Los Angeles to New York. Many Airlines do not even fly straight from Los Angeles to Chicago. These are major cities.
Yet what really bothers me is that political correctness is killing air travel, in addition to the rest of society.
I want to make it clear the the Chicago Cannonball does not share my political views, and that I am only speaking for me. I also want to make it clear that I have no idea what the security issue was on her plane.
Nevertheless, I want profiling at airports.
I have had it. We are at war, and unlike a failed 2004 Presidential Candidate, I do not want to fight a “more sensitive war.” The Chicago Cannonball totally disagrees with me on this issue. Her thought process is that if we profile people, the terrorists will just change their profile.
I don’t believe it i that simple to just recruit an entire new group of people. If anything, the Arab terrorists are running out of homicide bombers. They are starting to recruit the physically and mentally handicapped.
Some people feel that they did not consent to be profiled. While I did not consent to be blown to Kingdom Come. My right to be alive is more important than somebody else’s bruised ego.
Others will argue that if I was the one being profiled, it would bother me. What it would do would be to force me to turn inward at my own community. I constantly accuse liberal Jews of being screwups that engage in ideological bigotry. I am not shy about going after my own. When enough Arab Muslims go after their own, then things will get better.
Until then, asking Jewish men to take off their hats while Muslims are not asked to take off their turbans is insane.
Most Muslims are not terrorists,. but most terrorists are Muslims. Either we crack down and admit who we are fighting, or we will continue to help our enemies destroy us.
Everybody profiles. We judge each other based on education level when applying for a job. We “discriminate” in terms of wanting to live in a “good” neighborhood with less crime.
Women profile men based on money, and men profile women based on weight. Is this good? No, but it is the world we live in.
There are so many terrorists, that trying to kill them all is like trying to play wack-a-mole at warp speed. Yet the least we can do is not help them.
Islamic Fundamentalism is a cancer that has murdered people everywhere from Madrid to Bali to London to Glasgow to Mumbai to New York to Pennsylvania.
They also hit Washington, DC.
My girlfriend takes business trips to DC. There is nothing I can do about it.
Maybe it is totally hypocritical to be relaxed on my own flights but worried about hers. Yet I drive much more safely when I have a passenger than when I am by myself.
My parents keep telling me not to worry about them, yet they worry about me.
I tell the world I will be fine, yet I worry about others.
I just know what my priorities are.
I hope that one day I will live in a world where getting on a plane is as safe as walking on the sidewalk in a neighborhood with no cars.
I know that is unrealistic, but I wish Americans did not do everything possible to stack the deck against us.
I doubt I will ever know what happened with my girlfriend’s plane yesterday.
What I do know is that such “security problems” are not acceptable.
Not when it hits this close to home.
eric
Cannonballs point about changing profiles may hold some water since they are resorting to using the handicapped.
I believe using the handicapped is a matter of efficiency since they are easily persuaded but they are also less likely suspect.
Even if they were not running short on homicide bombers the handicapped make for a great cover.
Still, if little green men are flying your planes into buldings it only makes sense to keep an extra eye on them.
Anyone who says that they dont prejudge or discriminate is as dumb as those who believe it.
I think it was Jerry Seinfeld who said, soon after 9/11, and I paraphrase, ‘Go ahead and profile. If 9/11 were committed by a bunch of Jewish comedians, I’d want them to stop and search me.’ Some level of profiling seems appropriate. On the other hand, if you happen to look a little semitic, you might not like it. I think of that scene from Zohan when the neighborhood Jews and Arabs are joking around about how they all look kind of alike to foreigners and how one of them looked like “a Mexican.’ And then of course there are examples of non-semitic looking terrorists. And then there’s that infamous moron, John Lindh, the “American Taliban.” Profiling does have its limits. Good intelligence is the key. Personally, I’d like to see the visas stop flowing out to places like Pakistan, the Arabian penninsula, and Egypt.
I tried doing a news search on any recent such incident, but couldn’t find anything. Usually it’s just some drunky or a drug smuggler or some moron who forgot to unpack their hunting knife from last season.
JMJ