Does anyone feel that good old ordinary traveling U.S. citizens are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to attention from Congress?
We are faced with escalating fees, surging surcharges, appalling search indignities, airline schedules that are not worth the paper they are printed on, unintelligible airfares, overcrowded runways, a shortage of air traffic controllers, sleeping pilots, uninspected airplanes, and an air traffic control infrastructure that dates from the 1960s.
Let’s take a look at some recent outrages.
* Passengers are repeatedly trapped for more than eight hours on airplanes — basically kept hostage — and Congress does nothing.
* Airlines cancel flights unexpectedly or delay them without explaining anything to passengers — and Congress does nothing.
* Sleep-deprived passengers connecting from international flights are kept waiting for hours after landing in the U.S. because of delays — and Congress does nothing.
* Airlines pay their executives millions of dollars while putting thousands out of work and destroying stockholder value — and Congress does nothing.
* More passengers are being bumped than ever before — and Congress does nothing.
* More luggage is being lost than ever before — and Congress does nothing.
* The Federal Aviation Administration needs funding for changes to the air traffic control system — a potential national emergency — and Congress does nothing.
* Ticket prices and airport taxes go up while service goes down — and Congress does nothing.
You get the idea.
Our senators and representatives blather platitudes and give lip service, but when it comes to voting for change, Congress just can’t get the job done.
Crowds swell whenever Barack Obama speaks about change. It has become a repetitious mantra, but in fact, even Obama isn’t effecting change — only talking about it. With effective control of the Congress, Democrats should be able to pass something as simple as an airline passenger bill of rights, but all we get is bluster. Congress is too busy talking about change to make time to address everyday problems that touch the lives of the ordinary traveling public. When the New York state government recently tried to redress some of these wrongs, a federal appeals court ruled that national air travel is the province of the national government.
Something is clearly out of whack. Our government is not looking out for Joe Public.
* Congress has been more interested in our national pastime, baseball, than it has been in our national transportation infrastructure.
* Conditions for prisoners in Guantanamo are more important, it seems, than the condition of airline passengers imprisoned on aircraft stuck on the tarmac.
* Congress has spent more time protecting Congressional misbehavior from investigation than it has discussing searches of pregnant women, seriously ill children and passengers with nipple rings.
* Debates rage about legislating rules protecting polar bears from global warming, but few have said much about providing boarded passengers with water and basic toilet facilities.
* Legal visitors to the United States spend hours waiting to be interrogated, cleared and fingerprinted while thousands of illegal immigrants stream across the Mexican border.
* With a dollar that has lost about half of its buying power, visitors should be streaming into the U.S. to grab bargains but, amazingly, overseas tourism has actually dropped since 2000. According to stories I have heard, much of the decline can be attributed to how our immigration officials treat incoming tourists.
When elections loom, elected officials sometimes listen more carefully to their constituents. It might be a good time to let your incumbent representatives know that you are unhappy and feeling ignored.
Remember the power of the ballot box. Over the next six months, let your congressmen know, in no uncertain terms, that you are ready for real change, not more lip service about change.
