Fear of Flying? Sasha Smith

Flying is not something that folks have a choice about. I mean I guess we could all take boats and cars everywhere but the reality of our high-tech, high speed life is that we don't have time to travel by other means besides flying. It's gets us there the same day, we don't have to make major schedule alterations which you would have to do if you traveled by boat or car and it's actually considered safer than driving a car.

The truth is.. all we can do is have faith that our government officials and airline corporations are really going to continue to do the best they can to keep travelers as safe as possible. I still plan on flying as a result of what happened and I'm sure there might be other incidents but I refuse to live my life in fear. I have what I thin is normal plane anxiety. I always say a little prayer for the pilot and the aircraft getting me to my destination safely and try to distract myself by reading or sleeping while I'm in flight. Well maybe it's not normal but the reality of my life is that I can not afford to drive, train or boat anywhere. Most of the time the cost for the train and boat are not cheaper than getting an airline ticket. The main issue with all three modes of transportation is that it takes more time so if i wanted to see my parents in Massachusetts for weekend, I would get there, spend a couple of hours and have to turn back around.

Should U.S. officials have taken Abdulmutllab's father more seriously? Probably, but that didn't happened and all we hope for is that this is a lesson learned for us going into the beginning of the year. I applaud the passengers and crew members that stepped up to the plate and helped keep everyone safe against Abdulmutllab. We also must recognize that this speaks to a larger issue that we have of Islamic militants in Yemen who are trying to harm innocent Americans. If this story is true, I think we need to recognize the fact that many groups and countries have a lot of hate for America and will do anything they can to harm us. President Obama and his cabinet should look at this incident as the drive for 2010 to continue to build better relations around the world.

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