A travel rant I wrote 6 years and 1 month ago, before I was on DU

[Rabrrrrrr]

I'm not sure what inspired this particular rant, but I think it was in an email dialogue with a group of good friends and fellow ranters, one of whom likely used the phrase "A car in every garage" during a political discussion - we had a lot of those discussions in 2001, after Shitface was assigned to us as our "President". I do know that at the time I wrote this (May, 2001) I had been doing a LOT of flying around the country in the past year, and had more coming up, and was sick and fucking tired of the bullshit of air travel and the general character of the majority of flyers - and that was pre-9-11. This is a pretty good rant, I think, with a lot of early indicators of the Rabrrrrrr style, though I apparently didn't think to finish it - or else had a very poor idea of how an ending should go. There really was no conclusion to it. Maybe I meant as a long-winded rhetorical question.

Here it is:

I'm thinking of that statement (A car in every garage), and how it's the worst possible idea, ecologically speaking. Not only has the dream of a car in every garage been done, we're at the point where a president (we will wait until we have one who can form a thought and speak it) will need to say "A garage around every car" as a sign of actual prosperity, since apparently anyone now can own a car, just like, as I judge in my many travels, any poor uncultured SOB can now afford air travel, with their boorish, arcane, noisy, stinky, inappropriately dressed ways making air travel even more unpleasant than it is naturally. I'm beginning to think that train travel, in a sleeper car, is the best way to travel, since the price of that kind of travel is high enough that one need not worry about the common filth infiltrating one's space with their walkmans, unclever banter, body smell, smelly foods, noisy paper rattling, t-shirt wearing, baseball hat wearing, eat with their mouths open and talk loudly with their mouths full so the whole area can hear both chewing and conversation, can't sit still in a chair, four-million-carry-on having ways.

Do you all remember when travel used to be pleasant? When you could get on an airplane, and not have to fear that the unwashed masses and the polyester-and-lime-green-sweatsuit-wearing midwestern sight-seeing elderly who become panic stricken at the site of an overhead bin, let alone trying to jam their overstuffed purses, camera bags, stupid little jackets they had tied around their waists, flower printed sweatshirts, and 20 pounds of travel snacks into said bin while they hold up everyone behind them because they got on the plane in the first wave even though they're in row 10, have bought 80% of the flight?

[pitohui]

1. ok so old people shouldn't be able to afford to travel?

i think this rant should go back into the trunk from whence it came, it is not well written, it does not reflect well on you, and it is anti-democratic by nature

what is wrong w. travel being affordable enough that even an old person can fly from time to time?

you are the unwashed masses, my friend, as i am, as is everybody who posts on this site, ceos don't have time to post on the fabulous interweb

[Midlodemocrat]

2. .

:eyes:

Speak for yourself. I bathe.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

3. I don't think the poster meant it literally.

Unwashed masses usually means "common" people.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. I am well aware of that.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

5. I thought so.

But you never know, here at DU. :)

[DS1]

6. travel appears to be irrelevant

this looks like it's more about Rabrrrrr being confined to areas with other people, regardless of situation. I hope he doesn't have to spend too much time in the DMV offices, or court, or a hospital waiting room, or ...

[yy4me]

7. Somehow I don't think you really meant this rant the way it

sounds, at least I hope that is the case. We commoners (the great unwashed) have the right to travel just as you do. The fact that many of us are elderly (seniors to you) should have no bearing on
whether we do so. Your statement about "any poor uncultured SOB being able to afford to travel is not only insulting, it is not true.

Boy would I like to see you in a few years. I would make note of whether you should include yourself as one of the "common filth".

I have read this post several times and each time, I am more inclined to NOT forgive you for this insulating dialog.

Note: I am a senior, love to travel but can rarely do so because it is so costly. I pay my bills, shower daily, wear very conservative clothing, obey the rules. I think 99% us us do things the way they should be done. Somehow I bet you are one of the ones we all see in planes, bitching because the flight attendant didn't get you your second drink immediately. Never mind the fact that there are a few hundred others on the plane.

And by the way, in two years that I have been a member of DU, this is my first reply done in this tone. Couldn't let this one pass. Are you on anyone else's ignore list?

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. I offer it only as an historical artifact of a time I had been flying way too much, which I hate

I hate flying (not the being in the air part, the being jammed into a tube with a bunch of other people and sitting around waiting for the door to open to get in, then fighting for overhead, then waiting to get off...I hate it).

It was also a time I was looking ahead to a few more cross-country flights, one of which I knew was soon to be for my mother's funeral as her cancer was pretty well ready to kill her.

I perhaps should have been more explicit in reminding people that it's six years old, and not necessarily my current position on things, and added a bit more context to the rant.

Sorry if I offended.