To fly or not to fly

The weeks immediately leading up to Christmas, and the week following are usually a very busy time around airports in this and many other countries. Since rail travel in this country is definitely declined in its population density in recent decades (thanks to the affordability of other means of transportation), automobile and air transport are the current means of choice.

Knowing that an increased number of passengers would be frequenting airports at this time of year, perhaps it should come as no surprise that someone tried to wreak havoc on Christmas Day. As a result, security has been tightened in the last two days to levels unprecedented until now, and the result is delay after delay, and increasing levels of frustration for travelers who must wait up to four hours now while clearing all the security checkpoints before being allowed to board their flights.

Reaction like this is not unknown, although I wonder whether it does anything short of reassuring the public that something is indeed being done. True, the world we live in has changed drastically since the World Trade Centre was leveled in 2001, and what was considered situation normal then is definitely far from normal today. However, the chances that similar incidents will be repeated (except by copy cats) is relatively minimal. Instead, they who are responsible are probably already hard at work devising the next surprise for the rest of us.

In the meanwhile, if we continue to react only (and I'm not suggesting for a moment that we shouldn't proceed with measures aimed at caring for those we serve), then this world will continue to become more and more restricted until we may very well not be able to recognize where we live or what we have become.

Knowing that the perpetrators of this and other similar incidents are aiming for the most bang for the buck, we have every right and obligation to be careful, so we understand the measures that are being imposed, and we are willing to put up with the resulting delays (for a while) but this should not stop us from traveling. To do so would be to play into their hands, and the result would be that we would become prisoners in our own society ... in our own home.