Stumble it!Flying the not so friendly skies
posted in Politics by themaiden |Back not too long ago I walked into the airport and past the security with a knife big enough that security personnel stopped me and measured the knife before handing it back saying that if the blade were a hair longer they’d have to arrest me. In fact, I walked through several security checkpoints with knife in my back pocket.
Then came 9/11, after which my fifty-something mother, boarding a plane to come visit me, was told that she couldn’t carry a pair of finger nail clippers in her purse. And that knife? Well, I can’t even get past security at all with a boarding pass, much less carrying a knife.
Now someone explain this. I do think it is related.
A Southwest Airlines Co. employee pulled Ebbert off a flight this summer and forced her to adjust her outfit of a tank top, sweater and miniskirt before getting back on the plane.
‘Too sexy for Southwest’ woman in Playboy - Media- msnbc.com
Apparently, Kyla Ebbert, a not too bad looking 23 year student, was refused her seat on a plane because of her clothing and only got it back by. Southwest “don’t have a dress code but don’t want customers’ attire to offend other passengers.”
Follow the link for a video of an interview Ebbert, but if you want to cut to the chase and see her inordinately and family unfriendly attire…
You have got to be kidding me?
Airlines used to dress their stewardesses in less, or at least advertise that they did. To steal a quote, “The stewardesses were pretty young women in very short skirts. “We have the sexiest stewardesses” seemed to be a major advertising theme among the airlines. Their tiny skirts were designed to ride way up when they reached into the overhead compartments, or when they bent over to serve drinks to the passengers seated near the windows. This was intended no doubt for the entertainment of the largely male passengers.”
Kyla Ebbert’s case isn’t the only one. Setera Qassim had the same problem. She was wearing?
The video is here.
Nor are these the first shots in the war on indecency.
So what does this have to do with my knife and my mom’s finger nail clippers?
Partly I think, 9/11 created a nation of fear, and in the name of safety we gave airlines– and, not just to pick on airline, a number of other agencies as well– a tremendous amount of power. That power is now, not surprisingly, being abused. Power doesn’t stay put, really. There is an easy formula for the creation of petty dictators. Once you give someone a little power, they get used to that power, start to think of it as a right, and start to use it anyway they can.
Really, we created a nation of fear– just as the terrorists wanted. We didn’t have to react with paranoia. Bush’s comment that we should ‘go shopping’ as a big middle finger to the terrorists was a bit silly, but if he meant that we shouldn’t panic then he may have been right.
Never mind that the Bush Team went on to encourage that paranoia in every way it could. Fear is a good way to grab a little power. A paranoid populace lets it guard down and hands over its sovereignty with a little less reluctance than does a populace not afraid. And soon you’ve got hate thought-crimes bills and blatant insanity like the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.
But the paranoid also get very interested in the goings on of other people. Really, that is almost part of the definition of paranoid. So, since 9/11 the nation has drifted more and more toward a kind of ‘nosey neighbor’ approach to social interaction and not just where terrorists are concerned. I mean, if you’ve got to watch your neighbors for signs of terrorist activity, you might as watch them for signs of boobs and thighs too. I don’t mean to overstate the case, but I don’t think it should be understated either.
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