Stop Publicizing Airplane Rage

 

This is maybe going to sound a bit contradictory, but I believe that if we were to stop publicizing all of these airline rage incidents, a large majority of them would stop. Let me tell you my basis for this opinion.

I lived in Denver, Colorado during the Columbine school shooting. For the first few months, every time the media talked about Columbine (which was every broadcast), they mentioned the perpetrators first and last names. People had to beg them to stop, as teenagers were becoming fascinating with “all of the attention” the two boys were getting. In their youth and immaturity, they were too young to see that the two boys were not alive to enjoy the attention they were getting. Obviously, it didn’t stop all school shootings, but it did slow them down for a while, when teenagers saw that the “copycat” shooters weren’t getting the level of attention they used to.

My youngest older brother committed suicide in 1985. I still recall during the week before the funeral, while staying at our house, my oldest older brother, R, made the comment that he should commit suicide so he could get “all of this attention.” People from church had been bringing food for us and coming over to comfort my parents at the loss of their son.

When I drove city buses for a living in Denver, Colorado, I recall several instances where people would get on the bus and deliberately act up or harass the driver. If a friend or associate tried to stop them, they said that harassing the driver was “what you were supposed to do.” Somewhere along the line they’d heard about someone else doing it, and truly thought that was the way you were supposed to act on public transportation.

Which brings me to the airline rage incidents. They’ve gone on so long now that I believe that this type of behavior on airplanes is becoming “normalized.” It’s also becoming a way for people to get attention, especially after the intense period of isolation we’ve just experienced. Children discover early that getting negative attention from their parents can be better than not receiving any attention at all. The intern
et has opened a whole new world when it comes to giving everyone their “15 minutes of fame.” People are eager to be the next Tik Tok or Facebook star, even if they’re famous for something negative, like being a “Karen” or causing a scene on an airplane.

I can’t help but think that, like city bus passengers, airplane passengers have started to believe that harassing flight attendants, screaming, yelling, and punching other passengers is the way you are “supposed” to act on an airplane. For me, I can’t help but think that stopping all publicity of such incidents would rob these people of the attention they get from perpetrating them, and maybe at least decrease, if not put a halt to them.

This is just my 2c on the matter.

Thoughts about My Health

 

I was thinking about this the other day, and then yesterday at the local convenience store where I got into a discussion with the cashier about how much healthier we’ve been through the pandemic. We were talking about not only how many fewer colds and coughs we’ve had, but about how, if we do get them, they’re gone in a day or so, instead of the weeks and even up to a month they could last prior to the pandemic. I first noticed this when I started working from home instead of in the office. I had a coworker who was always sick. I mean, always. She might get better for a day or two, but that was it. Sure enough, she’d be coughing and sneezing again.

This person wasn’t one to keep her germs to herself, either. She coughed into the open air. She coughed and sneezed while standing over the general use copier. She wouldn’t wipe it down afterwards. She was a hugger. She liked to greet friends with a hug. Nothing wrong with that, except she’d do it when she was sick, too. It was as though she’d been sick for so long that she’d come to think of it as a state of being and forgot how to keep her germs to herself.

There was the time at the grocery store, prior to the pandemic, when I was at the deli counter waiting in line to get a sandwich. Along comes a woman with her late-teens daughter sitting, wrapped up in a blanket, in the cargo section of the grocery cart. She pulls up right next to me. And I do mean right next to me. Mom explains how her daughter is sick, but they wanted something from the deli, but of course daughter has to come along to pick up what she wants, so she brings her in the store.

She smiles while she says this and keeps smiling even as I’m trying to sidle away from them without losing my place at the counter. It probably took the pandemic to make her understand the horror of bringing her sick daughter into the store and exposing everyone there. Doing that now would’ve brought a Mt. St. Helen’s type explosive down on their heads about exposing others to disease. I still see the smiling faces on both women. Totally clueless to anyone else’s health.

I’m hoping that even after the pandemic has passed, or things have at least calmed down a bit, the grocery stores keep their new practice of individually wrapping the baked goods. I kind of like picking out a fritter or doughnut knowing that the only other person who touched it was the deli employee who has to comply with health standards set by the store and the government. At least this way if I do get sick, I can go straight to the store. Before, you never knew who’d touched something before you bought it. More than once I remember watching kids reaching into the cookie display and casually pulling out cookies with their bare hands. Probably unwashed bare hands. Who knew what else those hands were used for – wiping their noses, among other things, probably?

After I started working from home, I noticed several times that I got colds after grocery shopping. I started using the sterile cleanings pads on the cart when I came through the door. It helped cut down on that.

The convenience store attendant was telling me of a person who came through and told her they had strep. I said, yeah, I could understand the person needing to pick up a few things, but I can see her point too – send someone else into the store for you. Or wear a mask and gloves. Nowadays, if you’re sick, you can pre-order your soups and whatever else you need and have it brought out to your car. No need to infect everyone else.

 

 

 

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