Lost Words, Lost Worlds

We've become a society that has lost control of our own words. Every day people are misquoted, mis-spoken and misrepresented in the interpretation and intent of what is said. It has become too easy to take what someone says and impose a different intent upon those words. Someone says the war is necessary. It's taken to mean the war is all about oil. Someone says the war is unjust. They become unpatriotic. The truth is left by the roadside in our highjacking of speech. Newspapers take bits and pieces of a speech and re-assemble them to create a completely different intent.
A picture taken on a battlefield is altered in the hopes it makes a greater emotional impact on the reader. Where does it end? When will we regain control over what we say? Words are one of the most powerful things we have, yet we do not exercise the right to make sure our words are used as intended. Why is that? It seems that the need to obfuscate the events around us only ensures that we become more jaded in our lives. Who do we believe? The politicians who say all the right things while stuffing their pockets? The web site that promotes openness and accountability but is funded by groups with agendas? Or maybe the news that is forever being put to the fire for not researching the facts thoroughly enough before the deadline to print forces them to just run with the story and see what happens? Where is the accountability? It starts at home. The blogosphere is one example. It's the home bloggers that are the new detectives and investigative reporters in the world. Anyway, back to my original subject matter. Often I see people who make statements only to be taken out of content, misquoted, or vilified based not upon the speakers intent but upon the listeners interpretation. We have become a nation that jumps to conclusions based upon our own personal bias. Instead of asking how something is intended we arrogantly think we know what was meant and quickly drive down that road of self righteousness thinking we have understanding. When we make judgments on a persons first impressions, take dialogue the wrong way or read more into something that just maybe is really black and white, we take the path to literary indiscretion. Patience is what we lack. The patience to wait and find out the whole story before making any judgments. In effect, our "rush rush" lifestyles only tend to make us run down the wrong path, effort wasted.

Taking Flight

I'm in the airline business. I come by it honestly. My Dad worked for an airline most of his life. My brother worked for one for several years, and I've worked for one for 20 years, albeit not the same one. I'm on my third airline. Usually when two people from different airlines meet, one of the inevitable questions that arise is "So, is this your first airline?". Most times the answer is no. I've found that at one time or another everyone else worked for Braniff, even though it could be Braniff 1, 2 or 3. As for me I got into the biz when I was in my early 20's. The job seemed glamorous in a way and I was impressed by the way my Dad seemed to be friends with people all over the country. Some of the draws of working for an airline are the freedom to jet off to places all over the country, spending a day on the beach and flying back to snow that evening and going where many people could only dream of going. After all, what good was working for an airline if you didn't use the flight privledges? Of course I didn't use them that much, but I could have, got the t-shirt to prove it (My friends went to sunny Hawaii and all I got was this lousy t-shirt). When you're young, the world was an open book. I was fortunate, I've seen several places I probably wouldn't have seen if I had not worked for an airline. I don't have a college degree but I make a good living. Now the airlines are being attacked again. Yesterday a group of men in England were arrested for planning to detonate home made bombs on several flights to the U.S. Thankfully they were stopped by the intelligence services in England. Traveling by air has become a common event. People of all ages, statures and incomes are taking to the skies so it only makes sense that the people who hate our way of life would attack that freedom. But I'm sure they won't stop there. Telecommunications, food and water supply, and energy won't be far behind. After all, they live as if the year were still 1410 a.d. so of course they want us to live that way too. To them, they see progress as a capital offense. As our standard of living improves, it reminds them of how much farther the divide is between their lives and ours. Granted, with a free society comes things that are detrimental, but you can't tell me other societies don't have the same crime problems.
Yesterday was a horrible day in the airline business. Today was 180 degrees better. We went from a 40% on time day to a 90% on time day, and a Friday no less.
Our flights indicate that people are still flying. We'll see how this pans out in the weeks to come but for now, the traveling public are doing what they wanted to do. Taking flight.