I noticed in today's news that the passenger gal who got all upset about two dogs being carried in the passenger area for a flight, then got dragged off by airport security when she made a case of dogs on board...intends now to carry forward a legal situation with the airline (Southwest).
Southwest says (at least that's their position)....that they are awful sorry that the lady ended up getting off by airport security and they've been trying to have a chat with her.
Some people were leaning toward the gal in this story...until it came up three days later that she was a professor of Islamic studies at a prestigious US university. Folks who know the Islamic religion well....also know that Muslims tend to be anti-dog (a good bit). The idea of riding in a cabin for two hours? It might be unsettling.
Why she complained in the first place? She says she had to be on this flight, because her elderly father being sick. In her defense, she says she's got a serious allergy issue with dogs. Actual proof of the allergy? Well, that will pop up in court and there might be a discussion about the nature of this. If she has the paperwork, then the judge is going to ask how she intended to travel while knowing dogs might be part of the deal. She might not be able to answer that one. All future air travel with this gal? Well....yeah, it's best not to ask about this either.
The folks handling this on the plane? Well.....I ponder upon this.
Back thirty years ago (1980s), you could walk out to the airport and tended to find generally nice folks standing there and flights were a special thing. It didn't matter how bad the food was, the bitchy-nature of the stewardesses, the funky smell in the airplane bathroom, the weird nature of the ticket-lady, or the lateness in taking off (folks didn't say much if it was two hours late).
In the past fifteen years....something has occurred with air-travel and it's not the same experience. Part of this is the cheap nature now, and you have all those Greyhound bus dimwits who pay the $150 for a round-trip deal from Atlanta to Detroit, and the whole nature of the experience is gone.
Folks whine about the food, the knee space, the amount of bags that people drag onboard, the after-shave that 'Bob' is wearing, the funky grandma-smell from some of these older women, the drunk-level of guys onboard, the slutty dress and attire of some women (the boobs literally just falling out of the apparel), and any flight being more than 25 minutes late is now a big deal. Some folks just get disturbed if the stewardess appears to be over the age of fifty and a bit chunky.
The front-desk folks and the airport security staff? Well, they really don't want to let some idiot go and make some type of negative experience out of the deal. I noted a video from last month that I watched where some anti-Trump gal got hyped up over a young guy sitting next to her, and she tried to get the staff to remove him (he had a pro-Trump-shirt on). There was one brief attempt to calm her down, and then they called for security. She was going to exit the plane at that point....no questions or begging would help.
I look at this professor and I see the same situation....you get one chance to calm down, and then the security folks step in.
All of this brings me to my point...the public probably needs a reminder now....that just getting from point A to point B is the test of flying around the nation. You want to get there safely, and you'd best not find 688 reasons to whine over the conditions or the attire of the fellow-passengers, or their dogs.
The issue is that we seem to want to draw a line and let people know how we feel....trying to force change or force others to accept our vision of things. The sad thing is that once this starts up....you might have a guy like me standing there and noting your slutty attire as being too obvious, or me suggesting a dry-county approach to alcohol on board the plane. Note as well, I'd be perfectly happy for dinner options on a plane if you just handed out Mountain Dew and beef jerky. The dog thing would be acceptable to me, as long as it was a border collie (not one of those poodles).
