I never imagined that traveling down to Florida for Thanksgiving could be as easy as it was this year. Yes, yes, traveling down to Florida for the holidays was one of the most peaceful and publicly relaxing types of experiences that I've had in a long time. I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to arriving on time ANYWHERE...It's been part of my nature for years and being ON TIME was one of the important factors that I had to establish when I was working in news for many years...The ways you had to keep up with deadlines when writing under pressure established me as an on-time kindof guy that made it important to be compulsive whenever a writing assignment was parceled out by assigment editors and news executives when I once played with "the big boys". Oh how I don't miss those days as I sit now in a uncrowded airport being part of the security protected elite getting ready for a short trip down to the West Palm Beach area of Florida. Who would have ever thought that in a way you become a prisoner of your enviornment that you create while I sit here watching the baggage check personel and vast arrays of security personel wandering the airport corriders listening to the vast number of languages from people who have been trained to comply with so many of the standards airport security has set up since we became a post 9/11 society. I wonder if the days of travel have just expanded our inner conscience to become more insulated...more secure with the ways we have seen ourselves protected by technology, passwords and problems that have worked their ways into insulating us from what actually happens in our communities and with our children. Please don't think that I'm complaining but it does lead itself into wondering where we place our sacred trust these days when we know that monitoring and compulsive policing is necessary to provide the safety that we need to have especially on busy traveling days like the one I am experiencing this holdiay of 2011. Gone are the days of having to schlep hords of equipment through airports running to a land where you must gain someone's trust in a matter of hours before interviewing them in front of a camera. I can't say I miss it. I don't...along with the pressure that I had to put on myself in order to make the deadlines. Today, the experience of reporting has become more personal, more dedicated to reporting ideas about your family, friends and the ones you love reflecting a non intrusive way so that once made you feel accepted and unassuming without really trying. My voice has not been sensored in a long time and it is mostly therapeutic these days to be able to write about personal experiences without really having the BIG BROTHER syndrome watching over my every move even if AT&T companies help us from afar in any kind of computer problem we might have when a system or a glitch takes down one of your computers. So let us all be thankful this holiday season for a time that will be less intrusive and analytical allowing us to speak our minds and not be invaded by Orwellian "thought police" who know our evey move before we take a step outside. It's something we all deserve to share with our fellow citizens in order to be free and enjoy the luxuries of friends and family this holiday season. I wish you all peace and a good sense of serenity this holiday. We all deserve it when traveling through busy airports and vast arrays train, bus and busy highways getting to the ones we love. Enjoy the moments with with family and friends. They only want the best for us all. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
James
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