Quote of the Week

Every once in a while, I read something that might as well have been written by me (but wasn't). It feels pretty good, to be honest, in that it somewhat validates my view of the world--a view that I occasionally wonder if anybody shares. That happened this weekend when I stumbled upon this item at Kid Dynamite's Blog (a recent addition to my blog roll, but one that I've been enjoying so far).

Referring to a New York Times article which discussed a bill in Congress that would mandate that airlines allow passengers' first bags to be checked free of charge, Kid Dynamite went off, in a way that made me well up with pride.

This week's QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Free checked bags are not a basic human right that we need Congress to regulate and protect. Enough already. If you don’t want to pay the fee, fly a different airline. Get a different credit card that helps you with free bags. Don’t check bags. Consumers have choices. Vote with your wallet."

Absolutely dead on. Congress' job is to protect our fundamental rights, and to make sure that the entire country is playing on a level playing field. Beyond that, it's OUR RESPONSIBILITY to hold companies, people, and governments accountable for smaller actions that we feel are unjust. It is only when these people or groups of people infringe on our basic rights that we should ask government to get involved.

As a country, I think that we've completely lost our ability to solve our own problems as citizens. When something that we don't like pops up, we don't "vote with our wallet", hardly ever (if we did, FoxConn wouldn't exist, and neither would any of the big banks who've screwed us over time and time again over the last couple of decades). We just ask our politicians to make rules saving us from ourselves, because we can't possibly be expected to make the right choices based on our moral frameworks.

I think that America becomes weaker every time we do this, and it consistently makes me upset. America, when somebody slaps you in the face, don't just run and tell the teacher and have them sent to the principal's office--slap them the hell back, and then maybe they'll stop doing it.

[Kid Dynamite's Blog]