WORD
ON THE STREET
by Holiday Dmitri
The Booster - Wicker Park
September 11, 2002
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WORD
ON THE STREET |
I write this piece on my way to the airport. This is my last column for The Booster, which will coincidentally be published on the one-year anniversary of the day the Twin Towers fell to the earth. I was back home in San Jose, California when that happened, partaking in some quiet time from the hectic stampede of Wicker Park life to cram for my GREs. That morning of the terrorist hijackings, I was woken up early. In my sleep-glazed state, I heard my mother scrambling to inform me that America was under attack. A plane had just flown straight into the south tower of the World Trade Center. I hurried down stairs to the TV den, where I then witnessed live footage of United Airline Flight 175 ripping through the second tower. September 11, 2001 was the day many of us felt the illusion of our country's omnipotence shattered; we were indeed vulnerable. It was a black Tuesday that undoubtedly altered the face of America. By now though (and really especially today), the media has fed us an overkill of tragic testimonies and grueling front-page graphics of 9/11 and its aftermath. There has been wall-to-wall coverage from the press; some good, some mediocre, some extremely embarrassing. It's hard enough to swallow so much grievance and remembrance footage in one year, let alone on just this one day, so I'll cut through the sentiment: What I want to talk about -- what I want to address in my last column for this newspaper -- is a need to save the airlines. Our country's major airlines are in grave danger of going bankrupt. Granted, business corporations fail on many accounts (as we've also seen plastered in the news this past year), but let's not let a bunch of American-hating evil-doers be the cause of the airline industry's demise. America's fear of flying has intensified since 9/11, spurring mass coverage and concern over possible "holes" in air safety, thus negatively affecting our already tenuous perception of flying. The commercial aviation industry now finds itself with an even bigger task of reassuring the public that flying is still safe. While statistics show a car passenger is more likely to be in a mishap than an airline passenger, auto-accompanied fright is rare. There is, however, a de facto air scare. Of all transportation industries, airlines have become inextricably associated with catastrophe. Why do people inherently fear flying despite its relative safety as a means of transportation? We must save United. We must save American. We must save all the airline carriers at O'Hare and Midway. For years, I used to visit airports for fun. Prior to 9/11, I worked as a flight attendant for a charter airline. Now a year after 9/11, I am preparing to go back to school. Beginning at the end of this month, I will be conducting research in the field of aviation psychology at the University of Chicago. Joe Murphy, a freelance designer and a good friend of mine, has another, more irreverent take on doing business on airplanes. Joe is getting set to launch his "dating" service for the adventurous type, those who want to take their sex lives to a, shall we say, higher level. Ever heard of the Mile High Club? Log on to flight-club.org and enroll in the possibilities of taking your sexual fantasies airborne. You see, Joe's website serves as a database for passengers who wish to hook up. "This whole project is a social experiment," Joe explains. "I'm not making people do anything they wouldn't do already, I'm just helping them do it. Do I have a problem with hooking people up? No way. What I do is facilitate. This website helps facilitate the introduction. Everything else is up to the participants." Flight Club will be launching on September 12 ("We didn't want to jinx it by launching it the day before," he admitted). Anyway,
I need to cut this short. I'm off again. Speaking of air travel, I'm on
my way to Midway Airport, flying into Boston for my last hurrah before
classes begin. So for all the readers out there, thanks for reading my
words, and safe travels to wherever your future may take you. Let's fly
again once more. |
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