Entitlement: you're doing it wrong.

I was reading Jon Carroll's column the other morning and came across the following:

But now here's a real quote, from Siim Kallas, the European Union's transport commissioner: "It is clear that this is not sustainable. We cannot just wait until this ash cloud disappears."

It's about the air travel situation over across the pond, and like Mr. Carroll, I just have to scratch my head and ask: WTF? The concept that's suggested boggles my mind.

Big atmospheric phenomenon that will kill a plane's engines and bring you down, and there's people with a self-image inflated to the extent that they would say "hey, we've got time tables here, can't wait - let's get up in the air already!" D'ya really think that's going to change the laws of physics to suddenly work in your favor?

Carroll draws a comparison to the kind of people who, even though a road they want to take is flooded out and a team of volunteers is directing them to an alternate route, will say "oh no, I'm to big to fail" and plow through. Sure enough when the water gets up to their door handles, they need rescuing. Of course, with a big plane and hundreds of people possibly on board the need for caution takes a more severe tone. And you know what, for the sake of your safety and that of others, even if you don't value it, you're just gonna have to suck it up and wait.

I can understand the frustration and I thank the stars I'm not abroad right now. I know, I've been on extended travel and found myself caught in the throes of delays and whatnot and thought, with the lightning flashing/blizzard falling outside the airport windows "dear god, I don't care, just get me up in the air and back home already." But I think that with my quiet, inside-my-head voice.

But it sounds like people need to think critically about their attitudes. Last week I was listening to an interview on NPR with the president of Iceland about this whole volcano thing. And the interviewer asked as a final question what the president had to say about people who were blaming Iceland for all this trouble.

What I imagine went on in his head was "Are you effing KIDDING me? What the hell kind of stupid-assed question is that?!!!" But b\less him, the president answered very diplomatically.

Are there out there people who are seriously mad at >Iceland< for messing up their travel?

I mean, okay, in the sense of being the >cause< of an ash cloud that do planes terminal damage, Iceland and its volcano are responsible. But that's not the kind of responsibility I think people have in mind as they wag a finger of guilt in Iceland's direction.

There are bona fide things to be annoyed at, toward which one should rightly shake the finger of blame: not being reimbursed for their air travel. Hotels jacking up their prices, taking advantage of the travelers stranded through no fault of their own. Employers who would say "too bad your travel is being screwed up for reasons outside your control: you're ."

But one thing's for sure: It's not a volcano's fault that it blows. It's not an appropriate candidate for praise or blame; it just does what it does. By extension, it's not the fault of the citizens of Iceland that their volcano blew. People are appropriate candidates for praise and blame, but it's not as though they deliberately caused the event to happen.


Here's the rest of Jon Carroll's article, by the way:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F04%2F22%2FDDGE1D1LLT.DTL#ixzz0lqHaD2T5