Of course you're right VH, and I think that we should write to our elected representatives as well, but why stop there?
We could do as you say and we might even get the pollies to change their minds, but we would have missed a great opportunity to display our willingness to sacrifice our petty differences for the general good. Make no mistake, if we don't make a stand now, then who will, and when?
Now, just how should we respond to this threat to our civil liberties, and to the sanity of our society? The ideal situation would be for the majority of pilots to come out publicly against this, and other utterly insane security measures. If we could get other aviation participants to join in too, so much the better. Engineers, ATC, Operators, (even CASA!), the more the merrier.
The public see us as a very conservative group who act only when our interests are at stake. If we took a stand on this, they will realise that pilots, whom they generally trust, have acted uncharacteristically because they do not subscribe to the current madness. This would convince many people that the direction we are taking is leading to a degradation of our "civilisation". There are already a large number of civilised people who understand this, so we won't be alone, and we would be in very good company. Nearly all the world's best thinkers are aware of the irrational actions of our leaders in this crisis.
But we have to set aside our differences first. In a way, this is a great thing to happen, if it acts as the catalyst for public unity and against public apathy. We could emerge from this united and strong, or divided and weak. In fact, it may just be in the terrorists best interests too if we, the general public, were strengthened. Our weakness has got us where we are now.
Have you guys seen the reaction of the thousands of Ukranians who have stood outside in the snow for days protesting against the recent election when their High Court ruled the election invalid? The weather isn't nearly so bad outside in Oz.
If only we could come together like that we would succeed. The question is how bad does it have to get before we are prepared to act?
Also, the reason why the general public don't give a damn about the well-being of pilots is because we generally don't give a damn about theirs.
How many individual pilots, pilot's unions, associations, or aviation industry groups took it upon themselves to comment on the stupidity of pax having their nail clippers confiscated, or reinforcing cockpit doors? The inference is that we mistrust our pax, the people we rely on for our livelihood, or at the very least, hold them in contempt because of the misdeeds of an infinitely small group who have a need to make a political point.
We need to act less out of self-interest and more out of general interest if we really want others to support us when we need it.
It's the old story, united we stand, divided we fall, and at the moment we're all falling, not just pilots. To take it one step further, how many citizens recognized the dangerous precedent of allowing our govt to turn their backs on our fellow citizens accused of terrorist activities in Iraq? "Innocent until proven guilty" is there for a bloody good reason, so mass hysteria doesn't result in a Star Chamber mentality. It is there not just to protect good people like you and I, but people we think are bad too. This is because we could be wrong, and history has shown that we often are when we let emotion rule our thinking. In fact, the meaning behind civilisation implies that we apply science, our higher instincts, and reason to the conduct and organisation of our society, instead of reverting to fear, violence, and other basic instincts.
Didn't we all take up flying because we recognised it as a higher form of self-expression, a greater opportunity to be great?
Here's our opportunity.
Life's a bitch, then you fly!