Thanks to my mother and her Cobblestone magazine collection (only the sons and daughters of the educators would know what this is) I've always been a fan of the study of history. Along with that, I was able to go to school and really have a different perspective on many things that my Confederate influenced schools taught me. For example, I always thought Lee-Jackson-King Day was ignorant; and each one of my teachers at Chamberlayne Elementary didn't explain to me why we were celebrating two military officials who were proponents of slavery and a civil rights leader on the same day. I also thought early on that ideally communism was the better government. At the time I couldn't understand why it wasn't conveyed that way on the news; but later in life I was able to determine that it wasn't a system error, but there were evil people controlling the system--just like capitalism. I think when we look at any time of organization, group, or business and begin to criticize its actions; we need to determine if the problem is with the system or the individuals running it.
After a wonderful honeymoon my wife and I dealt with the hilarious and equally ridiculous aspects of Miami International Airport. We went through all of the post-9/11 [necessary] fiascoes and thought we had a little bit of time to get a $5 slice of pizza and $3 dollar soda. We were wrong. Power walking to our gate, I quickly noticed the only people there was the woman who announces the seating and another airport employee.
"Is the flight seating?" I asked.
"Yeah, but it's closed now," the announcer replied.
Melicer and I both sighed in disappointment, but the woman worked some magic and got the other employee to open the door and get us on. We then flew in one of those planes similar to a fighter jet to a stormy Richmond (we were eye level to the lightning). I was praying up a storm (no pun); and felt ease through the Top Gun turbulence when the pilot announced we would be landing in 15 minutes. However, I noticed as we went down to land, we quickly went back up. He did this once more, missing the runway twice--then we ended up in Norfolk 30 minutes later. While stranded in Norfolk International the pilot, evidently not equipped or skilled enough to fly in such conditions, said we wouldn't leave until 9:30 next morning. This was completely unacceptable by us and the other passengers; and they let the employees who had to deal with it have it all (Melicer stayed calm. I made a few jokes, but stayed relatively calm). As a result, these baggage handlers had to handle this motley crew of angry travelers--with no policy on how to do so.
In hindsight, with what they had to work with the baggage handlers did alright in the situation. But my concern lies with the airline--who didn't seem to have a clear policy on traveling in flight conditions, pilot training, and re-routing procedures. If the pilot can't do it, I want him to land us somewhere safely. But what's after that? Does the airline have some sort of ground transportation prepared to act? Is there a policy for passengers grounded less than 2 hours away from their port? What does the company have in place for these occurrences?
This one was for the business owners and directors. Some of you reading this I'm certain have great vision for and towards success. But just a tip, do all you can to make sure your system isn't broke. It can be tragic if it is. Trust me.
Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment