United We Fail

In a past post, I argued that certain functions that aren't profitable for the private sector to carry out are necessary for the common good and are thus valid functions of the government, which is formed to promote the common welfare. In the discussion on an airline rant by Kate Harding, another commenter pointed out that airlines aren't a public service. My instinctive response to this is why not? If they can't make a profit doing it without tax money (and it really seems like they can't), and yet our way of life would be unsustainable without their presence (it really would be), then there's no reason not to treat them as a public service.

I wasn't planning on making a blog post about this, and then I saw this bouncing around the twittarverse. United Airlines makes a big show about helping elderly passengers to their destination gates with wheelchairs while ignoring a twentysomething woman with freaky colored hair who has requested such aid. It gets worse from there.

There are two points I'm going to make here and I'm going to make them briefly because I've got stuff to do.

One is that we pay tax money to airlines in part so that their services will be available to us. Also in part so that we don't have to cope with a whole industry going belly-up, but not in any part at all because they have a God-given Constitutional right to stay in business no matter how unprofitable that business is or how poor their practices are.

We're paying through our taxes for the right to fly on a somewhat convenient and somewhat affordable basis. There is room for disagreement about whether or not this is a good idea (said room can be found on your own Livejournal, because that is not the conversation we're having here) but it's not really disputable that this is what's happening now. Besides our not infrequent bailing out of airlines, our taxes also pay for important infrastructure and subsidize flights to lower-demand areas.

The other is that it's not acceptable that this right we're all paying for should be accessible only to able-bodied individuals. A flight attendant's assistance getting luggage into the overhead rack (something the pre-flight spiels used to tell us to seek out if we needed) is not something that everybody needs but the people who actually do need it actually do need it. This is reality; it is non-negotiable. Call it a "special need" if you must, but access to airplanes is not a "special right"... unless, that is, it's to be reserved for those who can either walk long distances unaided and sling heavy weights above their head or are elderly-looking enough for it to be socially acceptable for them to seek and accept aid.

Tasks for Monday.

• Write some more of the next TOMU chapter - I lost a bunch in transit to an Evernote failure but still have a good beginning. I've since switched to using my phone's email client for writing, as it's good about saving drafts. - Chapter will probably be done tomorrow.
  
• Write Tribe.
  
• Write a piece of flash.
  
• Make another blog post.
  

I haven't done much more than sleep since getting here... not too surprising when I realize that I went about 48 hours without real sleep. I'm having a good time hanging out with popelizbet, though. And it's very relaxing just being here. I am sleeping so soundly that despite being right next to the front door (which is bedecked with bells) I managed to sleep right through Lizbet leaving for class this morning. In fact, when I woke up and realized how late it must be my first thought was that she had overslept. I ran to her room... okay, I tiptoed because I was iffy about going into her space and peeked in from kind of a wide angle so I wouldn't have to actually stick my head in and was surprised and relieved to see that her bed was empty. Which is good, because she's got some important stuff going on today. I feel somewhat inadequate to the task of giving her support and reassurance, but I'm very much rooting for her. She helps a lot of people in a lot of different ways, and she just generally kicks an awful lot of ass.

It's a little surreal...

...to have arrived here in this apartment on Saturday, when a week before that I was arriving at the house where I'm making my new living space. Before I get on the train to head back to Omaha, I'll have spent more time here than I have in the place that I now live.

When I planned this trip it seemed like a necessary escape, an opening of the release valve on the pressures of a life that was becoming overwhelming. But that sought-after temporary reprieve has been made redundant by a permanent change in situation... it's weird to realize in retrospect that among the reasons I wanted to travel more was to get away from things back home, and the fact that I had so much travel planned ended up contributing to what became the breaking point. Yes, I know, I'm being frustratingly oblique again there. My compartments are coming down but I'm not going to be airing my dirty laundry before the wilds of the internet.

Anyway, I'm here in Memphis. I'm not doing a lot of walking. Well, I'm doing most of the writing I've done while walking around the apartment. I think best--and write best--when I'm moving. Also, my bruised backside was aggravated by two ~ten hour stints on the train inside of 24 hours and it's honestly less painful sometimes to walk around then it is to sit. The fact that I can perform the major functions of my work while standing is probably a good sign for the future... but I digress.

I'm here in Memphis. Right now I am sitting (though once this post is finished I'm going to be standing once again) in a joyously dark and empty and cool apartment, with three cats lurking somewhere around my feet. I repeat the fact that I'm in Memphis because sometime next week there's going to be a little get-together. Details are still pending. The time leading up to my visit was kind of frantic for both my hostess and myself, for different reasons, but we'll get something worked out. I'm already know I'm going to be seeing old friends and meeting some of their friends... that's already happened... but I want to make sure anybody else in the area, any readers or blog-followers, who fall outside popelizbet's impressively large personal event horizon, who would like the chance to meet up and talk and chill know this.

So, yes. Memphis.

Oh, Lizbet just came home. The apartment is not dark and now we're going out. Life changes so fast here.