A Bright Light in Dark Skies

The young family seemed a textbook case of an endangered and invaluable species.

by Bruce Schimmel

As we rocked in the dark on final approach to Philly late on a recent Sunday night, I worried about Amelia's future. This was the infant's first plane trip, which made me consider how air travel has changed since my first flight.

In the last couple of years, travel by air has become nasty, and quickly. I shivered to imagine how much uglier it could soon get. Especially if we don't chart a new course for our ship of state.

As the lights in the Delaware River whizzed by, I glanced across the aisle at the infant, asleep in her dad's lap. Dressed in a white onesie dotted with faded pink flowers, the 6-week-old brought some light to this dark flight.

Tired travelers seated nearby broke into smiles as Amelia stretched her little red face into great yawns. People grinned as mom and dad took turns tickling and kissing her.

Watching the family offered a respite from the long lines, sharp elbows and short tempers of modern airline travel.

Traveling by plane used to be a pleasant experience. Now airports have become harbingers of other privatized nightmares, toward which many public accommodations are headed. From parks to waterfronts to airports, the public isn't being served, but rather served up to the highest bidder.

So when Amelia offered a moment to share feelings somewhat more tender than high-fives in an airport sports bar, many of her fellow travelers were grateful.

In boarding, Amelia's mom had joked with some of us over whether they had to remove their baby's booties (actually, yes), and whether the baby had to be placed in a gray plastic tray to be scanned (fortunately, no).

Everyone laughed, but soon grew quiet, as we silently worried if we'd said something wrong.

Was someone listening who didn't understand that we were all just trying to connect?

These are scary times, indeed, and scarier still for new parents. Amelia is this couple's first child, although they had more lines in their face and more gray in their hair than you'd expect of new parents.

Their clothes, though clean, were as faded as their infant's. They lacked the glossy patina of the comfortably wealthy, even when the rich dress down.

To me, the young family seemed a textbook example of a valuable species that's endangered: the American middle class.

Boarding in Boston, the three were bound ultimately for St. Louis. But having to chase discount fares, the family was forced to boomerang through Philly.

This odd itinerary, of course, is a familiar artifact of a Byzantine system that routinely jacks us around. Like other vital public services, air travel was deregulated, and is now badly run. So while it's true that more people are flying, there's still a widening gulf between those who can afford to fly and those who never will.

As for Amelia's parents, you could see in the faces of fellow passengers that many understood how far this particular couple was stretched. You could see empathy in their eyes as they oohed and cooed over the baby.

The income gulf is just one among many that divide Americans, which have buzz-sawed through the middle class.

Fear is grinding down our common values. The fear of losing health care, the fear of insolvency. A pervasive fear that's crowned by our government's celebration of terror that's made us warmongers to the world, and strangers to each other.

Tough times, indeed. I worried if Amelia was able to see a doctor. And whether her parents could.

I wondered if she'd live someday in an America where travel isn't a tribulation, and strangers in transit aren't always met with suspicion.

As the plane thumped onto the runway, I found myself hoping that when Amelia gets a seat of her own, we will have set a new course. Away from unbridled capitalism, and from the ignorant xenophobia that finds us alone and despised.

Amelia did give me a moment of hope. Not just because her mom and dad were kind, and kept their infant happy with lots of love and attention. But because I saw other fellow travelers actually look up from their laptops and, for a moment, see the values and hopes common to us all in the little world of this struggling young family.

(bruce@schimmel.com)