Places to go




It's from the fighting in Iraq, reportedly a missile strike or something in Baghdad. Numerous dead and wounded. The war marches on. Soldiers advance and retreat, civilians die, cable news networks get their chance to make compelling pictures. With the backdrop of the destruction and the accent of the harsh sandstorm, it looks more like a post-apocalyptic scene on Bradbury's Mars than the ancient land of Sumeria.

It's all background noise at this point as I rush around to tie up any loose ends regarding my job and my luggage before my wife and I live on Friday. I'm in countdown phase now, thinking it's only "x many hours" until we have to make our way to the airport. Time is running out and we have so many things on our "to-do" lists. I need to do laundry and pack, my wife needs to get spare cash and get in touch with the library about holding any books that may come in while we are gone. So much, too much, images on TV, items to pack, background noise, death, travel, reservations, historic sites, explosions, security, jet lag.

I talked to my mom today, who warned me to "keep vigilant" while on our travels. After a bit of back and forth, I finally pieced together that she was talking about pickpockets and other scoundrels, speaking from experience of her bag getting knifed during a trip to Italy. If she didn't keep on the look out, she tells me, she could have lost everything in her bag.

Of course, "keep vigilant" triggered in my mind what my government flounders about in telling me. Watch out for terrorists. Keep on a lookout at all times. For what? Someone in a turban and in a beard planting a box marked "BOMB" on it, all the while cackling evilly and twirling mustache-hairs in a fiendish curl?

The issue is, how much can you really do? The government, who always is on the lookout for terrorists, knows far more about who and what to look for than you do, constantly trying to draw "evildoers" out with misinformation and other intelligence gambits. Also how scary is it that we turn blind spots to all the dangers around us, hoping and praying the check and balances all click in to prevent some zealot from placing a bomb in the luggage compartment? And how can you be on the look out with out turning into a quivering paranoid mass, seeing villains everywhere you go? Then again, being observant is prolly what saved that flight from the convicted shoe bomber, who was foiled by a quick-witted airline attendant and plane crew. So there's something to be said for being vigilant, even if it is some vague, amorphous, do-nothing strategy that gives the 1950s "Duck and Cover" a run for its money.

But let's face it, no self-respecting terrorist worth his evil cackle will try something on an airplane again. The thought that keeps me from screaming in stark, raving madness at night is that since 9/11 and since the beginning of Bush's desert folly security around airports is super-duper extra tight. No one is going to try anything on an airplane. Luggage is checked, passengers are randomly screened (or not so randomly, if you have dark skin), and even our shoes have to come off when we go through security. What gets me is, just what are the terrorists, who remain invisible and anonymous until it's too late, going to plan next, and will I be in the first wave of dead in an inventive, spectacular and media-friendly assault? To paraphrase Ted Rall, that's the great thing about terrorist attacks: they're violent, but they always push the envelope for innovations in terror.

In the end, I can't really do anything except hope the baggage screeners check all the baggage and all the security folks scan everyone. I have to just close my eyes and enter the metal hull of an airplane, trusting that it'll get me there in one piece. I have to believe everyone on the plane just wants to suffer through a 14-hour flight and eat some mystery meat on a tray while watching a film they worked hard to avoid when it was in the multiplex. Transatlantic flights these days are an exercise in Buddhism...surrendering yourself to terms beyond life and suffering. Attain nothingness, and qualify for frequent flyer miles should you obtain enlightenment.


Random observation #1: Networks should really stop broadcasting how many Iraqis the U.S. and British forces killed in one day. Not only is it a bit seemly, rendering the death total to a kind of sports score, but it's also giving the people I know who lived through the daily death count back during Vietnam some terrible flashbacks.

Random observation #2: Airplanes should have libraries. Not just newspapers and magazines, but shelves of books.