The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 15)

br> -- Donald Parnell br> London, UK /p> p> REALITY CHECKS br> Re: James Bowman's review of Unaccompanied Minors : /p>

In our family we watched television and movies with the Mystery Science 3000 "analyze by wisecrack" on loud. The immediate question that would come to mind in the case of this movie is, "What would happen if you really tried this?" Both my boys would have immediately spotted the fact that the airline is responsible for unaccompanied children and in fact the families will "sue the pants off" the place if they just tossed them all in a single place with no supervision, because somebody would be seriously hurt or killed and it would not be funny then or later. The next thing that would happen would be that they'd send in the cops who would not be outwitted by smart-aleck children "and somebody might get shot."

Finally would come the opinion that in an emergency like a massive blizzard, what everybody has to do is work together, especially at Christmas, to be unselfish and not cause trouble, and to remember that the airport people are responsible for anything that happens on their property and they are going to do their best to make sure nothing bad happens.

In point of fact I spent Christmas 2004 in the Memphis airport, stranded both by bad weather and a wildcat baggage handlers strike, and at no point did anybody run wild in the airport. The one woman having a screaming tantrum in baggage claim because she couldn't find her car seat was surrounded by airport security who were treating her with the firm advice to calm herself that Mama would have used on any of us that behaved the same way, except they were not threatening to put her outside in the snow and see if she liked that better. People worked together and the airport did all it could to make us comfortable. (Northwest Airlines, however, were buttheads, telling us that they did not care if it was Christmas Day or Judgment Day, they had no responsibility and screw off, and I will never fly with them again.)

p>Contrary to the popular movie perception and in contrast to what every child knows, people running amok in an emergency is not funny; it is simply wrong. Especially at Christmas. br> --

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