A couple of wimpy, deluded characters
While waiting in line for security at JFK International Airport a few weeks ago, I eavesdropped on the conversation of two people standing behind me. One - a tall, thin 40-ish man with brown hair and a leather laptop bag - had seemed boring and sedate for most of our journey toward the metal detectors. He was the kind of guy who should be riding first class, if only he made that much money.
With him was a woman whose relationship to him I couldn’t quite grasp. She couldn’t have been his wife, I don’t think, but she seemed like an odd friend for him too. She was about his age, probably a little older, with shortish brown hair and a very middle-of-the-road personality. Well, alright, they were perfect for each other.
They’d been chatting the entire time, but I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying, besides that laptop bags are good for airports because it’s easy to take your laptops out for the X-rays. What got me riveted was when the guy noticed the special, shorter security line for first class and business class fliers. He was indignant.
This, though polished up a bit, is basically what he said (mixed with what I imagine he was thinking):
“Here we are - good, decent people who have worked hard our entire lives - waiting in a long, slow line for security check. And the fancy-pants rich people over there, just cause they have piles of money to burn on first class tickets - get to skip all that. I thought we were the same here. No longer are they content to glare at us smugly as we stumble past them, awkwardly into coach. Now they get to fart in our faces as they’re breezing through the metal detectors and we have to wait here for 45 minutes. We should be the same when it comes to security. This is a safety issue, not a convenience issue. What, just because they’re rich they’re not going to be terrorists? Ha! Look at Osama Bin Laden! He’s rich as hell, and the quintissential terrorist! We should be the same here. I understand they’re paying more for fancier seats. Give them their precious legroom. But this is safety. This is our lives.”
Just like me, this guy’s woman friend was far from impressed with his little rant. The point he was so obviously missing was that the extensiveness of the security check was a security issue; getting to be checked sooner, and thus getting to your gate sooner, is a convenience issue.
And that’s what was happening. There was no evidence that the security people were going lighter on the rich guys - letting them keep their laptops in their carry-ons, giving them deadly nail clippers stolen from hapless coach travelers, or letting them bring caustic chemicals on the plane. They just had shorter lines. Nothing to do with safety.
Though if you’d been working hard for your entire life - expecting to one day have the sort of income that let you travel first class and stare smugly at the lowlifes as they stumbled by, but constantly saw such a lifestyle just barely out of your reach - it was certainly an envy issue.
The woman didn’t say any of these things. Despite her quibble with his rant, she went on to prove herself the proprietor of an even weaker personality than the jealous guy.
“Yeah, I see what you’re saying,” she said appeasingly. “But I’m not sure you’re going to win that argument.”
She wasn’t taking a stance either way. Just saying that other people might want to debate him, and that he’d probably lose. Not that she would be either for or against his losing.
“It’s a security issue,” he said, reiterating his main point. “Why aren’t we the same when it comes to safety?”
“I’m sure you could write a letter to the editor that would be very effective,” the woman said, without a hint of patronization.
What a couple of weak characters!
6 years ago