Rules, whether you like them or not

We live our lives in a society that is filled with rules. All kinds of rules. Some are laws, others just regulations. Many are instituted by all the various levels of government. Some are written by private groups or companies.

The recent uproar in the airline industry is a prime example. Airlines are private companies with their own rules. They work in conjunction with the FAA, a branch of the federal government. When you purchase a ticket to hitch a ride to a destination on an airline, you are subject to their rules. You may not like them, but they are the rules.

Have you ever read them? I doubt it. They are quite long and pervasive. However, whether you read them or not, you must obey them. You are subject to whatever the flight crew and pilot of the aircraft commands. In essence, they are your gods and have dominion over you. There is a reason. One cannot have people doing whatever they want when two-hundred of their fellow travelers are riding the friendly skies thirty-thousand feet in the air.

By now, I'm sure most of you know what I'm referencing; the forcible removal of a doctor, a passenger aboard a United Airlines flight. Now, I'm not condoning what happened to the passenger on that flight. It is amazing how stupid people who try to enforce the rules can be. They used extreme and excess force and it should not be condoned nor tolerated.

I place just as much blame for this incident if not more on the passenger, Doctor David Dao for his actions. This is a country of rules and laws. If I were in his position I would not have liked to be removed from the plane either. I would likely have bitched and moaned all the way off the craft. But I would have walked off the plane with my own dignity intact. He is the one who created the scene and now we have another group who claim they are all 'traumatized'. (Hell, watching the nightly news is more traumatizing. What a sad state of affairs has become of our populace.)

It won't happen due to public backlash, but I would hope that this passenger is forced into court and is either fined or does jail time for interfering with the directions of a flight crew. I also hope anyone who is of the litigant variety sues him and not the airlines. It was his actions that caused all this 'trama', although I hope any halfway intelligent judge throws all those complaints out on their ear. It would be worth it just to have David Dao go through all the hassle.

If I were one of his patients, I'd drop him like a hot potato. I would hope my doctor has better judgement than that.