we watched the cable tonight. it has been very very long since i just flipped channels without a particular destination in mind. this was made all the more clear by the shows playing.
did you know that john mcenroe has his own talk show? this was news to me. the guy is not a good tv personality. even i could do a better show than him.
observation: it seems that both liberals and conservatives can agree that yes, martha lied and it was wrong, but this witch hunt has been taken too far.
id never heard of scarborough country before, but i think i like the show. tonights topic was terrorist "dry runs" on US airplanes. i found this particularly stricking and i'll tell you why.
the story:
passengers and flight crew experienced a bit of a scare on a flight between detroit and LA when 14 serian men behaved "oddly" during the flight and landing.
the show interviewed two passengers from the flight as well as several security and terrorism experts from various agencies.
the passengers saw the men rise and congregate throughout the flight. and apparently the men rose in sync during landing while the "remain seated" sign was lit. (no, they did not break out in dance and song)
security and terrorism experts showed restraint in categorizing the unusual activity of the men as "terrorist" or not. but they did say they do believe terrorists are routinely conducting "dry runs" in america.
what do i think about this?
funny you should ask.
believe it or not, i had a similar experience on our return flight from london:
pre-boarding, before even seeing any other passengers at the gate, i experienced an intuitive hit that something was amis. note that i rarely experience discomfort about flying since i fly long distances quite frequently. plus im a fairly laid back person, optimistic and at ease - even in chaos and emergency situations.
amongst me i noticed frat boys, babies, teenagers, poorly- and well-dressed, and english-accented, and several middle eastern "looking" men aboard our flight. being sensitive to stereotyping and my role in perpetuating stereotypes, i made a note of my initial reactions to the people around me and then made an effort to move on and enjoy my goodie-bag, provided courtesy of our wonderful airline.
once we were in the air and able to move about the cabin, there were a noticible number of people up and about. already uneasy from my pre-flight intuition, i felt the need to look around. it seemed odd to me that people were up when the flight had only begun. on our flight to london there had been so few people out of their seats at the start of the flight. why so many today?
my next observation was that most of the folks out of their seats appeared to be middle eastern and in some instances they were just standing there, not bathroom bound. this made me extremely uncomfortable. i really wanted everyone to just sit down. i wondered if anyone else felt so uneasy or if i was merely over-reacting due to my intense exposure to our culture's anti-middle east and 9-11 propaganda.
id also like to note, again, my conscious concern about stereotyping - i have a degree in gender studies and another in cultural studies. i recognize my conditioning and bias. i know that no matter how much unlearning i do, there is still a lot of garbage in my head that peaks out, unwanted
with this in mind, i cant help but wonder... what was this?
was this a "dry run"? was it paranoia? after seeing this show and hearing about dozens of other flights with similar activity - activity that i have never experienced on any flight other pre- or post- 9/11 flight besides this one, i am overwhelmingly compelled to say it was a "dry run".
but im also compelled to ask the question: gee, maybe if we keep seeing groups of middle eastern folks traveling together and standing up in-flight to chat, congregate, etc. (even if the rising is syncronistic in the midst of landing...) maybe its a cultural thing. maybe this is "normal middle eastern in-flight behavior". what the hell do we know? its possible.
the fact remains, we are so filled with hateful propaganda i cant even begin to make any conclusions about this experience or topic. it only raises more and makes me wonder what the hell is going on around here?!?! what is reality and what is fiction created by our government/media?
previously:
weather or not - 2006-03-07
My Flight - 2006-03-02
poetree in motion - 2006-02-28
ultimate personality test - 2006-02-25
limerick e-trip - 2006-02-22