I think that assuming another hijacking can never take place is assuming a bit too much. True, I don't think it can happen again with box cutters, but it can certainly happen again. All that needs to happen is for people to think it can't happen again.
As an aside, I learned that GE is not a good a company to work for -- at least not as a peon during that time. It was very hierarchal, and they treated most employees as cogs contrasted with giving upper managers special treatment.
GE has no monopoly on this HR philosophy. I spent six years working for an "international package delivery company" that had the same attitude. In that six year period, it went from being a great place to work to a real hell hole. My last year there, they had their first "across the board cost of living increase" in ten years. I didn't get one, though, because I was already making too much money. See, my pay increases were based on performance measures, and I had always received excellent performance reviews. So, because I had been such a good employee, they rewarded me by freezing my pay scale.
(I could go on. In fact, I will.)
One night, a fellow employee found $70,000 in cash, in unmarked plastic baggies, that had fallen out of a broken package. She was alone when she found it. She turned it in. As a reward, the company cut her a Bravo Zulu award check of $25. The manager made a speech and presented it to her, along with a lapel pin, in a pre-shift meeting. As she looked at it, the employee said, "I'll know what to do next time."
Several years ago, my wife was a manager of a "major national daycare provider". She frequently complained about her innability to attract any employees worth hiring. Naturally, this was a result of the corporation putting a ridiculously low ceiling on starting pay - with a little initiative, you could get a better offer from one of the neighborhoods fine fast food establishments, and not have to worry about things like making sure the children don't injure themselves or others, whether or not anyone has slipped your notice during a field trip and escaped, or protecting yourself and the company from any number of potential lawsuits or criminal arrests. Let's see - more money and no responsiblity, or less money and the lives of a dozen children in my hands... that's a tough choice. She eventually chose the former, and now, as a medical records clerk, makes nearly double what she made as a daycare director.
I suspect that they are having similar problems attracting airport screeners. Thousands of human lives depending on your ability to do your job... one error on your part could end in nothing less than disaster... and you are pulling in nearly, what, $300 a week? Gosh. I guess they would need to give applicants the answers to the test just to get enough applicants able to actually pass it.
And the problem doesn't end there. A company that does this to the grunt employees usually also offers less than stellar conditions for lower and middle management, compounding the problem by filling these ranks with underachievers, KFC management program dropouts, little Napoleonic patriots, and people who couldn't pass the psych exam to get into the police academy.
I think we can all see such parallels in our own lives. I was that 63 pound 12 year old. A friend's uncle was a hoarder of extreme measures - once, he had to be hospitalized, and when they went into his house, they found whole rooms packed floor to ceiling with newspapers and garbage he and his wife picked up on the side of the road.
As for the bullying, I experienced that, too. At my school, because I was one of the "hoods", the administration actually encouraged the jocks to bully us so as to provoke us into suspendable or expellable actions. It would have been very lonely and difficult without kindred spirits.
Of course they won't use these powers to go after anyone in the White House. What are you suggesting? The Patriot Act, as we all know, will only be used to pursue terrorists, and there aren't any in the White House - please! Using the Divinely-Ordained Patriot Act to prosecute God's Elect would be an unforgiveable abuse of power, don't you see? And John Ashcroft wasn't annointed to pursue any crime committed for the greater good of the Christian State. And it isn't that serious anyway, right? After all, she doesn't even use her husband's last name, so what does that tell you? She's a partisan Socialist Demonrat, so exposing her isn't really a crime. Bob Novak is a Patriot with a big Pee.
But I can't forget Fritz Leiber.
Did I ever write anything in high school... hell, I've got stuff out right now that could get me arrested in Ohio, apparently. I've never thought of myself as a Jim Morrison type, but apparently I'm going to have to start paying attention to latest obscenity rulings of the various states before visiting or traveling through them.
That's me, outlaw fantasy writer, with my dusty blue jeans and a laptop slung across my back.
I guess I'd better throw away my Fritz Leiber novels.
The Mouser did have a thing for waif-like girls who might or might not meet the current definition of legal age.
I can't wait for Talk like a Character from David Lynch's Dune.
I must admit, I like this blog.
Combining subjects - hurricanes and when I used to be a boy:
My inner Cassandra tells me Cape May, NJ. Not 'CHIN-ko-tig, Virginia'.
Even if GW did succumb to Tecumseh's Curse, don't you think they'd set up a Disney animatronic in front of a desk with a big microphone covering half his face than let Cheney get on TV and scare the living hell out of everyone? Oh my God! It's... it's... it's... our president! Aieeeeee!
"Shut up. You know, I eat fat little boys like you for breakfast. I'm not above cannibalism if it silences a critic. Slave girls. There aren't enough slave girls. Where's my doctor!"
Smirk & Sneer '04
Sept. 11 has been designated as Patriot Day by Congress. President George Bush is calling upon all Americans, institutions and government agencies to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff tomorrow. In addition, the president is asking all Americans to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m., ET, in remembrance of the 25 minutes he sat on his butt in a 2nd grade class and did nothing while America was under attack.
Stuart,
I think that is in reference to the PNAC document Planning for the New American Century (or something like that) written by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, et al. That's pretty much what it describes.
Brian,
What Elric said.
Teresa,
What James McDonald said. He's good, isn't he? And Andrew. I'm sort of a WO buff and I think his poetry is particular appropriate these days. I don't know that I intended to represent Bush as beginning his Spring Offensive, though I would by far prefer he gain the benefit of a Strange Meeting. But I don't imagine he reads much poetry beyond the occassional limerick scribed upon the bathroom wall. Or left upon his pillow by Dick Cheney. Certainly nothing that might disturb his world view.
If only he could sleep now. Or we could wake.
These men are worth
Your tears: You are not worth their merriment.
- from Apologia Pro Poemate Meo, Wilfred Owen
You don't even need to know Latin, just reference your Wilfred Owen properly. Maybe they were working from (faulty) memory.
Bush's boots are blessed with gold.
A friend of mine, Carolyn Magner Mason, has been writing about this. She lives in Alabama, teaches there, writes about Alabama... and alas, she has little hope that any real change will come of this.
http://www.datelinealabama.com/article/2003/09/04/4575_opinions_art.php3
In a recent email, she said, "It's the plantation mentality, alive and well in BAMA. If you keep the folks poor and dumb, they'll work hard for you and won't get all uppity like their northern brethern."
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 58 |
Total: 58 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Jeff Crook:
Show all comments by Jeff Crook.