Quite the interesting morning today at the Toronto airport. After clearing customs for the second time in about ten hours (and YES, I now have a Canada stamp in my passport-yaay!), my crew and I were going through security when we hear a loud crash coming from the security line next to us. I look over to see a man picking up his laptop from the ground and say “You idiot!”. The man in front of him who had accidentally knocked the laptop off the security “belt” turned around and started screaming at this man. “F you, you piece of sh-t. How dare you talk to me like that, you don’t do that!”. The other man says “You broke my laptop!”
“IT WAS A F-ING ACCIDENT YOU PIECE OF TRASH! You’d better get away from me or I’m going to punch your F-ing face in!”. After a few more expletives, things lighten up a bit and we make it through security without a full blown brawl breaking out (thank goodness-I left my camera at home and hate to miss such photo opportunities!) As we walk away, the crew and I place bets as to whether or not these two gentlemen (I use that word loosely) will be on our flight. A bet that I win- they were not on our flight 
After the betting had closed, I note how there we were in line at airport security when a fight breaks out and the fine security personnel did NOTHING aside from a couple of “calm down” sirs. Did I mention they did NOTHING? So apparently it is alright for two very angry men, about to go to blows, to waltz through security and get on a very confined aluminum tube without so much as a “time out”?
Walking off the jetway in Chicago the other night, I hear the gate agent say “It’s not my problem!”. Now I have felt that way on several occasions throughout life, but as I look around and see a woman in a wheelchair with her son standing by her side, I take notice of the situation. Apparently we had three people in need of a wheelchair with only two wheelchairs actually present and only one woman to push all three. I guess in Chicago after midnight, they hide all the wheelchairs. The gate agent promptly disappears leaving these three people to fend for themselves.
We (the crew), go in all directions trying to find another wheelchair, and as I get back to the gate I hear one of the flight attendants say “I don’t know why we have to deal with this”. Are you kidding me?
I am fully aware that it is not in my job description to chase down wheelchairs, but in the interest of not being a complete jackass, I do it anyway. Would you really want your loved ones to get stranded in an empty terminal of Chicago O’Hare in the middle of the night? There are just some things in life you don’t do, and stranding elderly people who can’t walk in an airport definitely falls in that category.
A few minutes later, everyone is on their way to baggage claim and off we go to the hotel for our layover, but this whole epsiode got me thinking. How on earth did we become such inconsiderate jerks as a society? Has it always been this way over the decades? When did America become the land of the free, home of the rude?
How often in our lives does it feel like everyone in the world wants money from us? This would be in addition to the daily struggle we face to not be completely torn apart in every direction. Perhaps my awareness of everyone wanting and expecting money from me is heightened solely because of the non-recession recession that we are in at the moment.
On top of all the usual suspects, I have noticed in the last week alone three requests for donations to various causes (very noble causes, I might add!), the hotel van drivers being more expectant than usual for their dollar tip (one actually started following me to make sure I gave it to him), as well as various other union and legal causes all wanting donations too. There are more, but thinking about them is too daunting!
What do we do- what do you do when you feel like the world is grabbing at your pocketbook?