Airline travel. Used to be a fan. Now not so much.

I am writing from the belly of the beast. Newark airport.

As I posted, I was looking forward to flying back to my new home base in Florida.

For one reason or another, I ended up going today instead of yesterday. No biggie.

I needed the extra rest.

Got my bags and cat all on board safely to fly southward and arrived. In Newark.

Getting out of Newark appears to be more of a problem.

On the spot, a flight attendant proclaimed the “airline approved” hard-sided carrier “unsuitable.”

Me and carrier and cat within it were all escorted off our flight.

Now what?

Go to Newark Airport baggage and buy a soft-sided carrier, I’m told. Where is that? How do I get there? How long does it take to get there and back?

In the old days, airport personnel just “knew.” They were familiar enough with their environment and what was needed and where to find it. These days, if it can’t be looked up on the internet, it can’t be found. Not easily at any rate. And absolutely not quickly.

Another flight leaves in 40 minutes. Will I get on it? Highly unlikely.

There is a shocking degree of “not my problem” among airline and airport personnel these days. We seem to have lost any sense of shock or outrage about treating people without even the basics of care, courtesy and dignity.

The gate agents who were there to “help” me disappeared. Literally left their posts and went elsewhere.

I suppose my biggest concern is that this type of shoddy service is so common these days, it’s hardly worth mentioning. Because it seems to happen to everyone at one time or the other all of the time.

The foundations of civil society will not end with a bang but with a whimper. It is the daily erosion of common courtesy and decency that are eroding our social structure.

Much more even than the flashy, big-mouthed politicians who push “solutions” to our social ills that not even they can take seriously in their private domain.

So I sit and wait as I have been instructed to do. My options are limited. They run the airlines after all.

I am in a state of mild shock and disbelief. Not so much because I have been personally mistreated and disregarded by hired professionals who are mandated to have your best interests at heart. But because everyone is being treated like this lately.

If you subscribe to the notions of “the golden rule” and “what goes around, comes around” as foundational tenets of the social contract, it is not surprising why our society’s well-being seems fundamentally frayed and flawed.

Am I attributing too much meaning to a service slip from a major airline? Sadly, I think not.