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Fred's Corner November 20, 2009 By Fred Cicco
Last week, I described an elite new force known as United States Peanut
Marshals. This was in response to people with peanut allergies. The
Federal Aviation Administration in their infinite wisdom directed the
airlines that if a person with peanut allergies demands it, they must
create a 3 row no peanut buffer zone on the plane to keep their allergy
from acting up.
I have a friend who is a Captain for Southwest Airlines. I was
talking to the Captain the other day and he told me that he has become
an expert in peanut allergies. Of course, his airline is deeply effected
because that is the cuisine of choice for every Southwest Flight. I
decided to call Southwest to see what would happen if a p.a.p. (peanut
allergic person) had to fly on their airline. They can change the status
of the flight with 24 hours notice. When the plane comes in from the
last segment that was flown, it has to be thoroughly vacuumed to try to
get rid of all peanut particles. Even the vents are vacuumed in this
case to try to get all the particles out of the plane. Even the smallest
particle in the air is able to make these people violently sick.
In the early morning flights raisins are subbed for peanuts. On
flights over 1 ½ hours they will serve cheese and crackers. They also
encourage passengers to bring their own meal on flights of over 1 ½
hours in length. Could get sticky if someone brings peanuts in their
lunch on a no peanut flight. Then the flight attendants have to nicely
tell the person that peanuts are banned on that particular flight.
All this makes you wonder about why the majority of people has to
suffer because of a few. We over compensate all the time. Now dont get
me wrong. I feel sorry for the handicapped and for disabled. I think
that giving them parking spaces close to the door is the right thing to
do. But when we built our clothing store in Merrillville we had to
install handicapped bathrooms. It involves more space and some other
special things. In the 16 years since we have built our Merrillville
store, not one handicapped person has used the bathroom there.
The same thing happens in the schools. Children that have special
needs get put in with all the other children. If the child is disruptive
or has a special problem, the teacher has to spend an inordinate amount
of time trying to control one child while the rest of the class is
deprived of the teachers attention. I think the peanut allergy thing
just points out the absurd way we are handling some of these situations.
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