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We have become a zombie country

One day we will crash to the ground as the decayed corpse we have become

By Om Prakash John GilmorePublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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Photo by Tarik Nachat on Pexels

It began at my arrival at LAX Terminal 5 – the painful experience of flying. Arriving after a 6 hour flight over the breakfast and lunch hours and only getting a warm cup of apple juice and a few pretzels was just the beginning. I needed to meet a group at Terminal 7. There were no signs at Terminal 5, just people wearing masks standing around. The information booth sat there in plain sight, empty, like many of the hopes and dreams of the people who live in this world through this Covid and inflation crises depending on the authorities and governments to take care of them. I stood, suitcase in hand, looking around and then decided to try to walk to Terminal 7.

No signs, no directions, no maps in the airport, so I went outside and began my 20 to 30 minute walk up the sidewalk, weaving through people and construction until I found a small group of people gathered in the LA Airport at Terminal 7. We talked for a few moments, made our introductions and then, when others found their way to the meeting spot, made our way to an awaiting Shuttle.

Loading up our bags we piled in and hit the crowded road through the airport to a large four lane highway headed to the Hyatt Regency for our Finding Our Way Home Conference. Some lived nearby, some cross country, and some down south, but we were all Unitarian Universalist BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). There was a great mix of people who hadn’t had time to gather together since pre-Covid times and some had never been to a gathering like that at all. Religious Educators, Administrators, Musicians, Ministers, Ministerial Students, and UUA Officials all there together for 4 days of interaction and presentations.

The hotel was beautiful. It has a beautiful pool in the back and a big swath of water in a very deep, wide, manmade river. The presentations were wonderful. Nice comfortable beds and meals awaited us in the morning. I went into the back of the hotel and did Tai chi and had a little workout the first morning there. Things were peaceful and quiet despite being very close to a highway. During the day I went to workshops and presentations and at night, most of the time, I spent my time with friends, old and new, laughing and joking before going to bed early because CA was three hours behind what I was used to. It was a great conference that ended with the flight from hell to get home.

I was scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia at 1130PM. Little did I know that the flight would be delayed by 2 hours and it was never announced. There we were sitting at the gate for three hours, having arrived two hours early, waiting and waiting until the plane arrived at 430PM instead of 300PM. And then it took almost 45 minutes just to get on by the time the pre-boarding group, then the priority group, then groups 1 - 9 were allowed to board.

Of course that order guaranteed a mess as those who were priority got in the way of the ones who were trying to get into the back of the plane. There was a twisted knot of people trying to find spaces for their carry-on bags whose numbers had increased due to a $30 charge for check-in bags. Since the plane was full to capacity, they just couldn’t handle all of the luggage so some had to be checked at the last minute. I think that should have been expected when they were charging $30 per bag.

It seems as though some madman or woman was in charge of organizing the flight. Instead of loading people into the plane starting from the back they were loading people in starting from the front and then randomly so everyone would have to work to get around people who were still seating themselves and putting away their bags. I couldn’t see a more inept way of organizing boarding, yet again, it was American Airlines and an American Airline. They had to have a hierarchy.

The ones who paid the most had to get on and off first even if doing so slowed down everyone’s progress and made the trip take longer. So much like the way the US runs now when it comes to reforms and progress. They only come secondarily to the amount of money being made and allowing those who already have to continue to make it while the whole nation suffers. So after a long time boarding we were off, without incident, flying all the way from LA to Philadelphia, PA.

It was a long, slow flight. I received a coke and a pack of cookies for dinner. That was it. A 6 hour flight…a coke and a pack of cookies. Earlier I had bought a sandwich, orange juice, and a scone for $28 so I still had the scone left over to eat. By the time we arrived in Philadelphia it was about 110AM. I had left for the airport at 11AM and had been engaged in getting home for more than 14 hours already. That didn’t count my picking up my car and driving home.

Luckily I was at Parkway Parking, a place that had a Limo service 24 hours a day. Well actually, it didn’t, because no one would answer the phone to come and pick you up. I stood there outside of baggage claims calling for almost 40 minutes as I watched other parking shuttles pull up, pick up people, and head to their cars so they could go home, and then had to take a cab to get to the Parkway lot for $18 for a 5 minute ride, and then I drove home.

A police car had the road blocked off so we were forced to exit, go through part of the city and then return back to the highway. I got home at about 245AM exhausted. I have never run into so many disorganized institutions in my life. It was really the flight from hell. Many people blame these delays and miscalculations on Covid, which is only partially true. The bigger part is about the economy. It is about money.

It is about a system set up in a way that is so fragile that it makes no room or allowance for emergencies. The economy must keep on going even over the crushed bodies that only serve as lubricant under the wheel of progress. Had there been a better airline there would have been no problem, but there are no real competitors since most of the domestic airlines secretly merged several years ago.

I only wish I would have been closer to home. Taking the bus or high speed rail would have been possible then. Yet again, we really don’t have a high speed rail in the US, do we? Nor do we have airlines that are really regulated. The whole country has become cowboy country as the government has given up its right to govern and has only held onto its right to start the wars that we, or other countries, have to finish, and fight for the right for anyone with the money to purchase them to own guns. We have become a zombie country and one day we will crash to the ground as the decayed corpse we have become. We won’t have to worry about flying then, just crawling.

The End

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About the Creator

Om Prakash John Gilmore

John (Om Prakash) Gilmore, is a Retired Unitarian Universalist Minister, a Licensed Massage Therapist and Reiki Master Teacher, and a student and teacher of Tai-Chi, Qigong, and Nada Yoga. Om Prakash loves reading sci-fi and fantasy.

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