Well now, it's been a few months since the 45th took office and I'm still not impressed with his actions nor his choice for cabinet members. Thus far it has seemed like everything that President Obama put into effect, he's signing orders reversing these directives. I'm so lost and I am so hopeful that we don't end in all sorts of nuclear Holocaust.
However, my dislike for 45 is not why I am writing tonight. I have some thoughts of some of the news issues that have been going on. My main thing has been the whole scandal with United Airlines. I am not a member of the airlines community, I am not an expert of policy and procedure of United Airlines either, so I can only have my opinion on this whole thing.
So, this is my take on it. To start with, according to what I have read from members of the airline community, flights are not overbooked to start with. To say that they are overbooked seems to me that they have yet to master how to count seats and people, and even my lovely 10 year old can do that, so, it's wasn't that the flight was overbooked. A flight had been cancelled and instead of being able to ask for volunteers while they were still sitting in the terminal, the cancelation was, by definition, emergency. Thus, the passengers were already on the flight and taking their seats. When asked if 4 people could give up their seat for the crew that needed to get somewhere, no one did. At this point, knowing that no one volunteered for this, they had to draw names. I can only assume that after telling the passengers that they would be voluntold to leave the flight, those four would not be happy campers in any way. Of course they would be reimbursed for the cost. Three people got up when their numbers or seats had been called. I know if it had been me and I had been told that I would have to give up my seat, I would be upset, but, I digress. The forth and final passenger who was to leave, refused to give up their seat. He was a doctor and needed to be somewhere soon, thus he needed to stay on the flight. This, as we all know, doesn't end well for him. Police need to be called to get this gentleman off the flight in order to make room for this crew, the flight is now delayed, no one is going anywhere. Now the cops have to be called.
In my experience, once the police have been called, there has been enough time that this person has tried to be reasoned with. I am sure that as soon as the cops arrive in any situation, it's not probably the best thing. The cops arrive and have to forcibly remove this gentleman from his seat. He sustains injuries from this episode. At no time do you hear anyone say that no, take my seat, don't hurt him, he's a doctor. Nope. Not at all. They all cry and whine and record this on their phones. The other passengers weren't concerned about this man a few minutes before the cops were called. No one else said they would give up their seats, so why are these same people crying foul? It makes no sense to me.
I have also read excerpts of United Airlines Policy about this kind of thing, and yes, they are well within their rights to remove someone from a flight like this. Does this mean that he needed to get his nose broken? I don't know. Police seem to amped up these days and on high alert from the last few years of the violence surrounding them and certain cases. It can't be an easy job that they have, I tend to try to give both parties the benefit of the doubt until more comes out of it.
I think for me, it becomes a matter of being socially responsible. We have become a society of selfish beings. It's only about number one. We don't like being responsible for our own actions, we think the world revolves around us and when we are unintentionally slighted, we blame others for it instead of thinking it may have something to do with us. Or maybe just realize that it wasn't on purpose and some times, we have to accept that we don't always get our way. Makes me so crazy. And it's not just the millennials who have this going for them. Lots of people my age and older have gotten so used to interacting with a computer screen, they have forgotten how to treat a person. We look at a woman wanting to utilize Planned Parenthood as some sort of whores who are the lowest of the low. What about seeing them as women who are trying to be responsible adults properly using contraception. We have allowed the church for far too many years preach the only safe sex is abstinence, but, that's not a practical way to deal with raging hormones. By taking away our interaction with each other has only social media has, we no longer empathize with others. We only see what horrible people they must be for doing xyz... It's out of control.
What will happen to this man, I don't know. I don't actually care at this point either. I find it to be more heinous of the other passengers to not give up their seats so this man could have stayed on the flight. What will happen to United Airlines, only time will tell if this is something they end up losing massive customers for. I know they have lost the man in question as a customer. For me, I'm a big fan of Southwest Airlines for three little words. Bags. Fly. Free. Yay!!
I don't know how to fix this problem. Get people to stop spending so much time with their electronics, yeah, not going to happen. The less we have to interact with others, the happier so are becoming. That's why I work in customer service. That's actually why I like working where I do. It may not be the best job, but I feel I'm pretty good at it, and I want to get better. I like the people side to things. But, more like helping them feel like someone is listening to what they need. That's all they want, understanding.
So, here's to you and all that we may be able to understand together in this life. Peace Friends. Be Responsible. Be Happy. Smile. Help Others... They just need a hand.
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