LJ Idol Chapter 10: Open Topic
I live in a rough neighborhood and I have a dangerous career. There are very few times when I am not nervous and worried for my personal safety. Sometimes I am armed with nothing as dangerous as a camera, and have to flee from shotgun wielding husbands protecting their mistress from exposure to their wives.
I've walked through a parking lot and been shot at with no warning. Someone recognized me as "the man who ruined my marriage" and she came out of her house with a 22 rifle and chased me from the apartment complex. It had nothing to do with why I was there.
But, today, I'm boarding an airplane for the first time in ten years. The only thing I have on me to defend myself with is my wits and a pillow that might be deadly enough to kill a hamster if I swing it hard enough.
The media tells us to beware. We take our lives in our hands every time we get on an airplane. Any one of these airborne death traps could be hijacked and flown into a building, and the only thing protecting us from this is an x-ray machine and a guy who flunked out of community college.
But, there are others, people who pay attention to trends and who work with probabilities, who say that it is safer to fly than to walk down the street.
I consider the streets that I've walked down, and I consider the flight to Omaha, and I have to agree. I didn't get mugged. I didn't get propositioned. I wasn't offered drugs. I just had to endure a bad movie and a string of neverending conversation from my traveling companion.
I boarded the airplane wondering what I had at hand to protect myself and the other passengers should something happen. I disembark assuming that the trip is the calm before the storm.
This is my entry for Week 10 of LiveJournal Idol, Season 6. To read the other entries in the contest, click here.
I've walked through a parking lot and been shot at with no warning. Someone recognized me as "the man who ruined my marriage" and she came out of her house with a 22 rifle and chased me from the apartment complex. It had nothing to do with why I was there.
But, today, I'm boarding an airplane for the first time in ten years. The only thing I have on me to defend myself with is my wits and a pillow that might be deadly enough to kill a hamster if I swing it hard enough.
The media tells us to beware. We take our lives in our hands every time we get on an airplane. Any one of these airborne death traps could be hijacked and flown into a building, and the only thing protecting us from this is an x-ray machine and a guy who flunked out of community college.
But, there are others, people who pay attention to trends and who work with probabilities, who say that it is safer to fly than to walk down the street.
I consider the streets that I've walked down, and I consider the flight to Omaha, and I have to agree. I didn't get mugged. I didn't get propositioned. I wasn't offered drugs. I just had to endure a bad movie and a string of neverending conversation from my traveling companion.
I boarded the airplane wondering what I had at hand to protect myself and the other passengers should something happen. I disembark assuming that the trip is the calm before the storm.
This is my entry for Week 10 of LiveJournal Idol, Season 6. To read the other entries in the contest, click here.