Pray for Us
It’s called a tefillin. It’s a pair of small leather cubes connected by straps. One is attached to the arm and the other to the head. Overly-religious Jews put them on as paean to their god for rescuing their forbears from Egypt. At least that’s what the story is in the omniscient Wikipedia, which is where I looked when I read a story about how an airliner was diverted from its planned route because of one.
It seems a fellow traveling from New York to Louisville put one of these on mid-flight. His reason for doing so wasn’t immediately clear. Anyway, a bunch of folks sharing space on this narrow aluminum tube traveling at hundreds miles an hour and tens of thousands of feet in the air were also unclear about what he was doing, and disconcertedly so. The pilot decided to land the plane in Philadelphia.
Of course the police and fire teams were on hand, the sniffing dogs were brought in, the passengers taken off and put on other flights. Thus a lot of people were greatly inconvenienced, and a lot of money was needlessly spent accommodating this man. As my esteemed colleague and religious intolerant Steve Pizzo wondered, "What would possess someone to drag a contraption like that onto an airliner these days and expect anything but mass panic?"
I won’t pass along his suggestion for due recourse. For my money, he should have to apologize to everyone who was put out, pay all of the costs, and then be pilloried at the entrance of LaGuardia Airport for at least a year. Because this isn’t about religious freedom, it’s about common sense, and it should be required of everyone over the age of 18 who wants to appear in public or otherwise have contact with living things.
Indeed, ours would be a far safer planet if all religious displays – including chadors, yarmulkes and unkempt beards – were banned from public view. I’m pretty sure no real god would mind.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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