Come Fly With Me

When I was a kid, my father was a captain with American Airlines during the golden age of commercial aviation. Flying in those days was quite a luxury. People would actually get dressed up. They could get their ticket and walk directly to their gate and board their flight. Passengers were treated like a valued customer. We were given meals and snacks and even drinks for free. People could smoke! Seats were comfortable. You could check your luggage without charge and not worry that some baggage handler would go through your things. If a bag did get lost, they would find it and deliver it to your door. The airlines competed to see who could be the most hospitable. It was a pleasure to fly.

With the advent of highjackers, terrorists, bombings, attempted bombings and 9/11, commercial aviation has become complicated, potentially dangerous and most assuredly…inconvenient. For the sake of safety, the flying public has had to endure many changes. First, we must all carry and provide approved forms of picture ID’s. We are asked to remove our shoes and stand in long lines to go through security checkpoints by TSA agents. Because of this, we are told to come to the airport at least 2 hours (now 3 hours!) before our flight leaves. Once we wind our way to the security gates we must empty our pockets, wallets, coats and keys into trays. These items along with our carry on bags are placed on conveyers to be scanned by X-ray machines. Any fingernail clippers, pocket knives, and liquids over 3 ounces are confiscated. Then we are poked and probed after stepping through the metal detector in our stocking feet. Having passed that procedure we race to the end of the conveyor to retrieve our bags, wallets, loose change, keys and shoes so that we can reassemble ourselves and move on to our departure gate.

Once at the gate, we wait for our section to be called for boarding. We are herded like cattle down a shoot into a metal tube with narrow aisles. We scramble to find space in the overhead bins near our seats (if you can get an assigned seat) before some moron shoves an oversized suitcase or duffle bag in your space. God help you if you are old or weak and cannot lift your carry on over your head and into the bin. Once that is accomplished we sink into our narrow seat with no leg room and pray that we do not get hemmed in by some large guy who drools in his sleep, a “talker” or a parent with a screaming baby. Forget about meals and snacks, we will be lucky to get a half can of soda in a plastic cup and a bag of peanuts. We will be expected to stay scrunched in our seat for hours. If we need to use the restroom, good luck getting past the other passengers also scrunched next to us. Once out in the aisle, we can stand in line with several other passengers waiting to use the one working toilet in coach (no one in coach is allowed to use the use ones in first class) and just hope the plane does not hit turbulence. Then it’s back to our seats with seatbelts on. Oh, New Rule! We can’t use the toilets an hour before landing. Suck it up and cross your legs. If you soil your seat…you own it. Coming soon: pay toilets!

Upon landing, we scramble to the luggage area to retrieve the extra bags that we had to pay a fee to check because we are allowed only one small bag as a carry on. Once there… we wait. We hope and pray that our bags made it by the baggage handlers in one piece. If we pass that hurdle, we scramble to find ground transportation and breathe a sigh of relief. The return trip starts the process all over again.

Yes, we want to stay safe when we fly, but come on! What happened to those days I remember when flying was glamorous and pleasurable, when we were treated like a real person, a valued customer? Fear is what has happened. Cost cutting to make the bottom line is what has happened. Not enough people flying are what has happened. Cut rate fares are what has happened. People stopped being valued customers. We became potential terrorists. We became a commodity to move from point A to point B in the cheapest way possible.

Moooo! Happy New Year!

Food for THOUGHT…

Healthcare and Washington

I was hopeful when the House passed its version of the Healthcare Reform Bill with a public option. It looked like we might actually DO something that would address the healthcare crisis in this country. For too many Americans private healthcare insurance is becoming or is in fact too costly. Too many Americans are being priced out of the market with sky rocketing premiums that go nowhere but up. Even if you can afford the premiums, you can’t afford to get sick with outrageous deductibles and out of pocket expenses and caps on coverage. It makes you wonder why you are paying all that money each month to some big insurance company, only to be told that you are not covered or the portion you have to pay still bankrupts you. And we wonder where all that money has gone.

When the Senate began debating its version of the bill, things began to unravel big time. Even though Democrats have enough votes to pass a bill, they began to fall apart in the face of the Republican stone wall. The Party of NO dug in its heels and has done everything it can to end any hope of meaningful healthcare reform. But they did not do it alone they had help from conservative Democrats and independents like our old pal, “which way is the wind blowing” Joe Lieberman. First, they dropped the public healthcare option and then they scuttled the early Medicare buy-in option. They singlehandedly eliminated any kind of competition that would have forced the private insurance industry to start lowering their prices and cutting costs. The bill would still require everyone to purchase insurance, but without a low cost public option, what incentive would there be for the insurance industry to lower their costs? In fact, they would seem to benefit tremendously with millions of Americans being forced by law to buy into a broken healthcare system that they control. Yes, they would have to provide coverage for people with preexisting conditions, but what better excuse to make that coverage prohibitive with higher prices. Those who least could afford it would be caught in the squeeze of following the law and the inability to afford the coverage they need.

Once again FEAR and special interest groups reign supreme in our nation’s capitol. Reason and common sense have lost again. Our nation’s poor, working poor and middle class will be left out to dry. Once again this country will have the best healthcare system…that MONEY can buy.

Food for THOUGHT…

That Time of Year Again

It’s Christmas time again. I can’t believe another year has passed and it is time for the colors of red and green, reindeer and jolly old elves. It’s time for the crush of shoppers and children leaving hints for their parents and letters to Santa. It is time once more for Christmas carols and homes decorated with colorful lights that blink. It is a time when we start thinking about food and family gatherings and a warm home.

There is another side to this season of giving and warm memories, a darker side, a hidden side. There are struggling people, the working poor and the homeless that pass us on the street. There are families living from pay check to pay check. There are children that Santa won’t be visiting and men and women that call a box under an overpass home. It is the season of hunger…and want.

Lisa and I were invited to spend part of the day working at our new Food Bank here in San Antonio. It is a large new facility built by HEB Food Stores. This distribution facility supplies food (donated and purchased) to food pantries in a surrounding six county area here in South Texas. They feed 25,000 hungry people a week and the numbers are growing. The day we were there, we packed over 1,000 food boxes for senior citizens.

After our work session, we talked with the volunteer coordinator and were surprised to learn that the Food Bank worked with prisoners, as well as handicapped and disadvantaged young people. It is part of an ongoing community training program. These people are trained in warehousing technology and culinary arts. Those people passing their certification program have no problem getting jobs as chefs in some of San Antonio’s finest hotels and restaurants. Prisoners become certified to run forklifts and other heavy equipment for area factories and warehouses when they get out. So people are not only getting fed, but they are learning useful skills to make a decent living.

We also learned that the need for food and volunteers is not just at Christmas and Thanksgiving, but all year round. Yes, the spirit of the season reminds us of those who are less fortunate, but hunger and poverty are with us 365 days a year, not just on holidays. Lisa and I realized how much we have to be thankful for and decided to spend some of our spare time as volunteers during the rest of the year. We felt good knowing that in just that one day, we helped feed over 1,000 people. Why not use this season of giving and stop by your local Food Bank or food pantry and give a little of your time.

Food for THOUGHT…

My Favorite Picture

I have a picture on the wall in my office. It shows me in a hammock feeding my infant daughter, Erin, with a bottle. It’s one of my favorite pictures. I look so young in that picture. My hair is dark and I have a mustache instead of a beard. Erin, for her part, looks quite content.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Erin gave birth to her first child, Nathan Andrew Schaus. That makes my third grandchild and the first grandson. There were some complications during labor, but mom and son are doing just fine. I just look at that picture in the hammock and wonder…where have all the years gone?

I now have a new favorite picture… Welcome to the world, “Little Nate!”

With Love,
Gramps

Food for THOUGHT…