Airline Passengers Taking Control

[English Lady]

I knew I shouldn't have opened this thread.


It really saddens me to see this kind of nastiness anywhere.


I'm all for tolerance, and education. You cannot, simply cannot discriminate a whole nation because of a few evil buggers.

 

[Guest]

 

[impressive]

Amazing. How 'bout a re-read:

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything (including the planet).
• Play fair (and don't discriminate).
• Don't hit people (and don't provoke them to hit you).
• Put things back where you found them (or don't pick 'em up in the first place).
• Clean up your own mess (especially when it's in your soul).
• Don't take things that aren't yours (like life).
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody (and mean it).
• Wash your hands before you eat (and your heart before you hurt).
• Flush. ('nuff said)
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you (and so is compassion).
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some (and refrain from thinking you're the only one who can teach).
• Take a nap every afternoon (please).
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. (Alone, we are nothing.)
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. (Cynics, see above.)
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. (We are all equal.)
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK (and then SEE).

 

[Liar]

The kids turned out to be clean, but who cares. Since nearly every airplane hijacker in the last 30 years has been an Arab Muslim, these passengers were simply playing the odds.

By being born into a world that hates and fears them for no reason?

Where do I sign up for the I fucking care list?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I learned "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

But I soon learned that not everyone adheres to that philosophy. So I had to learn to fight back and do a little kicking myself. And what some people call sharing is not truly sharing as they never heard of the one "Don't take what's not yours."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

By being born into a world that hates and fears them for no reason?

Where do I sign up for the I fucking care list?

That would be at the site www.care.org. Oh and it's run by the UN.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Timothy McVeigh was a white AMERICAN that killed americans on american soil. He looked like the rest of us here.
He was a terrorist.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Timothy McVeigh was a white AMERICAN that killed americans on american soil. He looked like the rest of us here.
He was a terrorist.

You are correct!

 

[FallingToFly]

The flight from Amsterdam was a significantly different situation from the flight with the two men travelling from Malaga. Twelve people sharing a mobile phone is a justifiable cause for concern, whatever they look like.

An awareness of the behaviour of about those who are travelling with you is reasonable. Insisting that anyone who looks like a Muslim should not travel is unreasonable.

Agreed, and oddly, I agree that passengers SHOULD be aware of their surroundings and others. Would I think twice about being on a plane, or bus, or in a store with a person who may or may not of any particular ethnic background? Nope.

Now if that same person- of any background, was wearing a trenchcoat in the middle of July, or acting in a suspicious manner in any way, I would be concerned. There are just as many crazy white, black, yellow, red, purple and green people as there are any other color. And you don't have to be a terrorist to be mentally deranged, carrying a Uzi in a guitar case, and blow away everyone around you because The Lord High Emperor of Planet GUWI told you to, now do you?

Zeb, I firmly agree that PEOPLE should be responsible for being aware of OTHER EPOPLE who are acting in manners that may or may not be dangerous to them. If twelve white guys with shaved heads were passing around a mobile phone amongst themselves on a plane, I'd be just as worried and I damn well would mention it to someone.

 

[Straight-8]

I think there are two issues that are being confused and causing the friction.

First there is the question of vigilante-ism. It is a very dangerous road and probably leads to far more injustice than any other path.

Second there is the question of whether racial 'profiling' is the same as a racist attitude. I think that one can lead to the other but not inevitably. If I am concerned about a terrorist who belongs to the 'Tamil Tigers' it would be a reasonable assumption that I should be particularly alert to Tamils. If I am looking for a member of the KKK I probably need not focus on the NAACP. And if I am searching for a member of Al Quiada I think it is logical for me to be more suspicious of those of middle eastern descent. To pretend otherwise, for the sake of political correctness, is just idiocy.

And, yes, one shouold be more concerned about young men than others.

But if I let that grow to the state where I assume that all people of the most likely group are automatically suspects and subject to vigilante hounding, then I have let that slip over into a racist attitude.

So I agree with Oggs but I think being 'aware of your surroundings' includes being aware of the racial background (and, as some have pointed out, sex) of the people in your surroundings and being honest about the fact that the threat is more likely to come from a specific group/race/sex.

It makes no sense to be equally worried about an attack coming from an 80 year old mexican grandmother and a 20 year old middle eastern man.

 

[SeaCat]

I am somewhat insulted by this thread.

Those of you who know me, know why. You have read my history, you have shared my pain, and you have seen my scars. Those who don't know me, or don't care to know me, you will never understand why I light a candle for your souls.

Mikki, I love you still.

Cat