by Pa Rock
Chronically Abused Air Passenger
When it comes to travel in these United States, our government has basically limited the American public to two options, driving our personal vehicles, almost all of which are gas-powered and speed climate change, or flying on commercial airliners, also gasoline powered. Yes, there are some national bus services, but those are limited to certain cities and often take inordinate amounts of time as the busses service many stops along their routes - and they, too, are gas-powered. There is a national rail service that has a relatively strong presence along the "northeastern corridor" (Boston - NYC - Philadelphia - Baltimore - and DC), but passenger routes are sparse in the rest of the country. Some large urban areas are developing "light rail" systems to move people within single urban regions, but for those who want to travel from one major urban area to another, cars and planes are generally the two only practical options.
American political leaders have worked hand-in-glove with the oil and gas industry for more than a century to keep us dependent on gas-powered engines, a relationship that is unlikely to end until the last drop of oil has been pumped from the earth. The markets for the safer and less expensive options of solar and wind energy are much harder for energy companies to capture and control, and will thus have to wait.
So we continue to drive up and down the roads in our putt-putt or zoom-zoom gas-powered cars, often with only one person in the vehicle, or pack into crowed airports where we stand in line to be packed onto the overcrowded planes.
Flying is a horrible experience, one that even frequent air-travelers won't defend. Modern airports are little more than sprawling shopping centers of outrageously over-priced merchandise where the distance between boarding gates is often so far as to pose challenges even for young travelers who are in good physical shape, and once exhausted passengers reach their gates, they are herded into planes, stuffed into cramped seats, and flown off to another sprawled-out shopping mall posing as an airport in another city where they can run to their next boarding gate or race to the baggage carousel.
It would take a masochist of the first water to enjoy an average airport or flying experience even in the best of times, but now, in the second week of the federal government shutdown with Congress preparing to take its fourth week in a row of paid vacation, air traffic controllers, who are currently not being paid, are beginning to phone in sick, and new elements of concern are added to the horror-scape of flying - increased wait times for take-offs and landings, and more chances of collisions on the ground and in the air.
And as if all of that absolute crap wasn't enough, yesterday Trump added one more element of angst and humiliation to the air travel circus. Now, as you race across a busy airport trying to reach your departure gate while holding a three-year-old, squirming child and a small $8.00 soft drink in one hand, and drag a forty-pound "carry-on" piece of luggage with the other, you are suddenly seeing Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on the airport monitors telling you that all of this inconvenience you are experiencing has been caused by the Democrats who shut down the government.
Trump's purely partisan propaganda being dutifully read on camera by family-pet murderer Noem weaves its way into the other commotion to heighten the sense of fear, anger, and doom among those who are rushing to fly the "friendly" skies.
I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when teleportation is a thing!
High-speed, Mag-Lev trains now!
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