Life Is Not Purgatory
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Sweet Home Alabama Alberta
Racism: I am glad to be home, if I have learned one thing in the past week it how good we have it here in Canada, and regardless of how ‘redneck’ a province we may think we live in, it is nothing when compared to the southern United States. I couldn’t live there – the racial undertones in everything is a part of the fabric of the southern culture – a racial qualifier is added to nearly every sentence as a required part of speech. (ie. A nice black man, a attractive Hispanic girl, etc.) as opposed to (a nice man, an attractive girl).
Airport Security: We got off the plane in Minneapolis-St.Paul and had breakfast at Chilli’s. TheLindberg Terminal has a shopping center with food courts for the passengers, located within the ‘secured’ area of the airport, past the baggage checks, and x-ray machines. So when I ordered my bacon and eggs – I got given a normal flatware table knife... and they had steak and eggs on the menu... how much you want to bet that I would have gotten a steak knife for those? The waste of money fighting ‘the last war’ is enormous – there isn’t going to be another hijacking of that nature again... there have been fatal beatings of people experiencing air rage, does anyone actually think someone is going to try hijacking an airliner with box cutters again? Does anyone think they would not get subdued by the rest of the passengers? Suggestion to the US and Canadian governments, put those billions of dollars into port control and border protection rather than throwing money at a non existent problem. Oh wait! Every city has an airport.... and only costal cities have ports, and few of the coastal states are ‘swing states’ hmmm I wonder if politics is behind this.
Security Blanket: I've done some thinking and conlcuded I'm not ready to move on outside my security blanket. Spending a week away from my girlfriend, friends, coworkers, employees - with only my family around me was excruciating. I think I'm still an Edmonton boy for a while.
Racism: I am glad to be home, if I have learned one thing in the past week it how good we have it here in Canada, and regardless of how ‘redneck’ a province we may think we live in, it is nothing when compared to the southern United States. I couldn’t live there – the racial undertones in everything is a part of the fabric of the southern culture – a racial qualifier is added to nearly every sentence as a required part of speech. (ie. A nice black man, a attractive Hispanic girl, etc.) as opposed to (a nice man, an attractive girl).
Airport Security: We got off the plane in Minneapolis-St.Paul and had breakfast at Chilli’s. TheLindberg Terminal has a shopping center with food courts for the passengers, located within the ‘secured’ area of the airport, past the baggage checks, and x-ray machines. So when I ordered my bacon and eggs – I got given a normal flatware table knife... and they had steak and eggs on the menu... how much you want to bet that I would have gotten a steak knife for those? The waste of money fighting ‘the last war’ is enormous – there isn’t going to be another hijacking of that nature again... there have been fatal beatings of people experiencing air rage, does anyone actually think someone is going to try hijacking an airliner with box cutters again? Does anyone think they would not get subdued by the rest of the passengers? Suggestion to the US and Canadian governments, put those billions of dollars into port control and border protection rather than throwing money at a non existent problem. Oh wait! Every city has an airport.... and only costal cities have ports, and few of the coastal states are ‘swing states’ hmmm I wonder if politics is behind this.
Security Blanket: I've done some thinking and conlcuded I'm not ready to move on outside my security blanket. Spending a week away from my girlfriend, friends, coworkers, employees - with only my family around me was excruciating. I think I'm still an Edmonton boy for a while.
