On Lies, Airport Floors & Corporate Abuse

You may have noticed by the guest posting over the weekend that I was away. That's why I write this blog entry from the floor of the Minneapolis Airport at 2am (no joke). I was at a friend's wedding this weekend in upstate New York. Seemed like it would be a nice respite from reality. Unfortunately, on my way back, I unexpectedly found myself on the frontlines in the battle against corporate abuse. And I am sad to report, I lost the battle.

The story is pretty brutal in its own sad, mundane, "it's disgusting this stuff happens everyday" sort of way. My connecting Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Helena got delayed. We then sat on the tarmac for 2 hours. Just before takeoff, the pilot came on and said the radar had unexpectedly died, and the flight was cancelled. Yet, when we got off plane, the corporate manager of Northwest at Minneapolis airport changed the code to say our flight was cancelled because of weather - a deliberate move to make sure Northwest doesn't have to foot the bill for a hotel...no problem anyway - all hotels are booked. Meanwhile, the folks at the Northwest desk told my wife and I with a straight face that the earliest they can get us into Helena is Thursday night (yes, tonight is Monday night).

Sadly, my story is not unique either on this day, or any other day. I was, not surprisingly, agitated at the whole situation - especially when the employees at Northwest contradicted the pilot, and lied to the entire plane's face in saying that the flight had been cancelled because of weather. Interestingly, my anger prompted an argument I had with someone who basically said that while the Northwest Airlines corporation screwed us, it was pointless to try to hold the employees who were in our face accountable.

That brings me to what really disturbs me about this whole experience - in today's day and age, corporations are allowed to essentially ignore ordinary people. They can do this because of their size, and because they give their workers who deal with the customers very little power. That powerlessness actually creates a SYSTEM of non-accountability, where the employees must tell customers they "can't do anything about it." In some sense, I still believe it is important to let folks who abuse you that what they are doing is totally unacceptable. But in another sense, I understand the point that it does no good because I know the system is RIGGED to make sure it is impossible to hold a corporation accountable, much less even vent your frustrations to someone at the corporation who can change anything.

I'm not really sure what the answer to all of this is, though it is especially insulting that this kind of thing regularly occurs in an industry subsidized by our hard-earned tax dollars. To be sure, this kind of corporate abuse is miniscule compared to things like Enron, etc. - but it is still corporate abuse. And as much as I tried my best to fight it, I - like millions of other ordinary citizens each and everyday in all different ways - was just more corporate roadkill. Figuratively, I wasn't much more than a speed bump on an airport floor as Big Business plowed over me and my wife in one of those beeping airline-owned golf carts - all to maximize one company's bottom line.

In my delirium, let me end this post with a bit of poetry, shamelessly stolen and butchered from the distinguished works of Robert Frost:

This airport is disgustng, I say with a weep.
But I have writing/blogging obligations to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep...

P.S. Needless to say, posting may be a bit light on Tuesday as I try to get home...