Today was a travel day for me… specifically… flying.  Not the flapping-of-my-arms kind.  No.  It was the getting-on-a-big-plane kind of flying.

I tend to get a little irritable as a result. A bit scrappy around the edges.

( — Hang on a second… while I go get my favorite Soap Box out of the closet. Okay.. I’m climbing up on it now…. and… back to the point: —- )

Sure… flying can be a bit of a hassle.

But what gets me the most are some of the people I encounter while on the trek home. The ones that have a healthy heap of entitlement mixed in with their otherwise surly attitudes.

Traveling about the United States…. as we darn well please….  is an amazing freedom. We have lots of freedoms here in America that we mostly take for granted. These have been afforded to us by the resolution of many complicated, and strenuous situations. Mostly…. by service men and women, who have given their lives in our defense and protection.

Now….. I don’t claim to know how it all works.

But today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Two thousand, four hundred Americans were killed in that attack in 1941. This is just one for instance.

So….  .. ….  Back to flying. We are asked to give up certain luxuries… in order to fly. Security Measures. TSA Restrictions.

People get their underwear all bunched up….. over the constraints placed on us during commercial air flight. I have a very simple solution to it.

Don’t fly.

Alec Baldwin got kicked off a plane for not turning off his iPad when the flight attendant asked him for the 6th time to power it down.  Guess what? It is called a rule Alec. The rest of us have to turn off our electronic devices when asked. Either… don’t fly. Or…. turn off the iPad.  (He got off the plane.)

An 85-year-old woman was subjected to a pat down recently. She was absolutely livid about having to undergo such an ordeal. How could the TSA think an 85-year-old-woman is a terrorist?  Bunk, she said. Well…….That’s how it works for everyone lady. From babies to 110. No one is exempt. Either do what they ask… or don’t fly.

It is that simple.

Leave your bottled waters beyond security. Take your shoes and your belt off. Pull your laptop out of your bag… and put it in the tray. Make this huge and incredible sacrifice… huge…. huge….

It isn’t the TSA’s fault that these measures are in place. It isn’t the government’s fault. Not the airlines’ fault. Nope.

And as you are making this noble and tremendous gesture…. complying with these rules of commercial flight….

Try to remember the sacrifices that are given daily… by service men and women of the United States… in protection of our rights and freedoms.  Now that is huge.