Airline Rage over Seat Space

There has recently been a spate of air rage incidents on commercial airliners over the issue of personal space. These have all involved passengers easing their seats back into a semi-reclined position. However, doing so is increasingly impinging on the space of the passengers behind you. Why? Because air carriers are demanding putting more passengers within the same space, and are accomplishing this by reducing seat width (now a mere 16 inches), leg room (now just 20 inches from seat back to seat back), reducing restroom size (as if that's possible!) and decreasing the average width of the aisles.

In short, the airlines are greedy, and any way they can increase profit, they gladly do; in spite of growing discontent amongst rank and file passengers. As paying customers, the airlines demand more money, and give less and less in return. While airfares are currently midline, all the carriers are adding baggage fees, port fees, preferred seating fees, charging for pillows and blankets, eliminating food service on long flights (aside from the 1st Class passengers, of course), even charging you to have the audacity of using a check-in person at the airport (!) and pretty much anything else the pencil heads can think of to gouge the customers even more.

It's really nothing more than GREED. Last year the airlines had a collective net profit of some $7.00B dollars; largely due to the plethora of fees they impose on their cash strapped customers. So, with those kinds of profits, why exactly are passengers being treated like cattle on their way to slaughter?
It's disgusting what is happening in the name of 'profit.' You would think with $7B income that air carriers would give passengers a few perks back. Instead of looking at customers as bodies that fill seats, how about giving them some respect...and space?

That will never happen because airlines, like the oil companies, have become addicted to record profits and will fight their customers tooth and nail to keep those dollars rolling in; while passengers have less and less space to sit in, and are denied the most basic of services, as well as respect.

The only way this will change is if the paying public start writing airlines and demand a change towards customer service and comfort. If that doesn't work, start driving instead and deny the airlines your travel budget. After all, money speaks louder than words; and if enough people stop flying, I guarantee you that the airlines will listen.

From The Wall Builders: A Shield of Righteousness

This week represents the 75th Anniversary of the start of World War II. I received the following from The Wall Builders that contains yet another significant piece of forgotten history--or, purposely omitted by revisionists--that this country rallied around at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The article...

A Shield of Righteousness Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. (Ephesians 6:14)   This week, (September 1) marks the 75th anniversary of the official beginning of WWII. On September 3, 1939, President Roosevelt addressed the nation with one of his famous "Fireside Chats" stating his resolve to remain a neutral nation in the war, which culminated in an American Proclamation of Neutrality declared on September 5th. However, all of that changed with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In his famous "date which will live in infamy" message to Congress requesting that the United States officially declare war on Japan, President Roosevelt stated, "With confidence in our armed forces -- with the unbounding determination of our people -- we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God." This confidence in God and our military (along with his concern for individual American soldiers) was later evident in what is now known as The Heart-Shield Bible. These Bibles (used during World War II) were designed to fit securely into the chest pocket of a soldier’s uniform. The metal plates were securely attached to the front cover of the Bible to stop a bullet from reaching the soldier's heart (which they did on several occasions). In our library at WallBuilders we have several of these World War II Bibles. In the back is a section of psalms and hymns, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,”  “America the Beautiful,” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”  In the front, there is a note to the soldiers directly from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.   "As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a foundation of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul." Well before America joined World War II, on the 400th anniversary of the English Bible in 1935, President Roosevelt reminded the nation of the Bible's importance in America's formation and continuance:     "We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. . . . Where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity; where it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed, we have faltered in our way, lost our range finders, and found our progress checked. It is well that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible. The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in the economy of our life as a people." Many other presidents encouraged Americans to read the Bible -- including President John Quincy Adams. Interestingly, before becoming president and while serving as a diplomat to Russia under President James Madison, Adams wrote his ten-year-old son nine letters on the importance of reading the Bible, how to read through the Bible once a year, and how to get the most application form what he read. Immediately after Adams' death in 1847, these letters were published as a book to make his wise counsel on the Bible available to all Americans. Called John Quincy Adams Letters to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings, WallBuilders recently reprinted this work in ebook format. Visit our website to get your copy and enjoy the remarkable spiritual insight of this great President of the United States.       The people who revise our history and seek to eliminate religion from our past, continue to ignore the very precepts that made The United States of America the great and shining example that it was. Instead, they tell us that religion is bad, and played no role in the creation of this country, and that anyone supporting religion is ignorant or uneducated. Never be afraid to stand up and voice your opinion on the matter. The less we say, the more the real history of this country is white washed from  religion--and its key role in our history-- to secularist interpretations that remove any references to Christianity and its influence over Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, Congress and everyday Americans.