The Culture of Fear Hurts Us All

After the recent theatrical release of the hyped-up United 93, one version of the story of the fated downed airliner, I mused that I could imagine the paranoia and fear surrounding flying increasing exponentially. Imagining such comments to those of middle-eastern descent along the lines of "You're not planning on blowing up the plane are you?", etc, and cringing at the increased feelings of prejudice that are a result of the perpetuated stereotyping of certain ethnic groups.

Just yesterday, I read in the National Post about a man who was flying to London to see his grandmother, who was dying very quickly. The article specified that he was of South Asian descent. He had never flown before and was understandably quite nervous. To distract himself before the flight, he called several friends on his cell phone from the waiting area in the airport. Apparently this was too much for the other passengers to handle, and several of them reported the man to the officials as being suspicious. After boarding the plane, the man was detained by security and escorted back into the airport where they informed him that he would be refused access to the flight for the sake of the other passengers' comfort. He was told to go re-book with another airline. He returned home and because of the delay, his grandmother subsequently died and he was not able to see her before this happened.

This is a horrible ending to this story. Let's all try and keep our heads about what kind of fear is helpful and what kinds tear our social fabric apart. No matter how much parts of society advance, it seems there have always been scapegoats.