Ecuperating - Chapter 26

That is the Frequent Flyers. They would be safe, and wouldn’t have to pass through the extensive checks others would go through. Look, if someone had been flying a half dozen times a year for the past ten years, they certainly wouldn’t be the ones who wanted to blow that damn plane out of the air. And how about veterans and cops who are trained in the use of pistols? You’d think they would be glad to go as sky marshals or something. I’m sure they would.

“What I get the biggest kick out of is the governments of the so-called critical places like New York, Washington D.C., bridges and such. Haven’t they figured out yet that it doesn’t matter where it is in the country, the terrorists would get just as much press out of it as any other place? Hell, if I was a terrorist, I’d probably go for a passenger boat to Mackinac Island rather than the Staten Island Ferry.

No security up there. And the results would be the same. Blowing up a mall in Podunk, USA will give them just as much coverage as blowing one up in Las Vegas. And our powers that be don’t recognize that at all. The thing is, you CAN’T protect yourself against these people. The question is; what the hell CAN you do?

“If I was running things I’d try to identify those individual terrorists. I don’t know how, but that’s where I’d start. Then blow them to hell, and if their friends and families are in the vicinity, so be it. You have to start fighting the war the way they do. Terrorize them until they stop doing it. We have terrorist groups all over claiming responsibility for these bombings. Well, bomb them, and all their friends. Keep taking them all out until they yell Uncle! And stop worrying about destroying their holy places. It’s their holy places that are teaching them to do it! DUH!”

“I get your drift!” Brett laughed.

“How about Foreign Aid?”

“That’s easy,” Jayne grinned.

“If they don’t agree with us, don’t do it. I won’t say any more about the subject. I get upset when we help nations who hate us. It makes me think we are trying to buy them off. I know, I know! The argument is that we are punishing the people for what their government is doing. Well, then, get rid of your government.”

“OK. Let’s lighten it up a bit. How about sports?” Brett asked.

“What sports? Organized baseball on the national level? Football? Hockey? Basketball?”

Jayne made a dismissive gesture.

“Have you ever wondered about the origin of sports? It seems that sports were originally instituted to emulate real life situations. It was to prepare the youth for those eventual problems they may face from day to day in real life. It might be a life and death situation for a man to be able to throw a rock straight, so sports started the young boy throwing stones. It might be a life and death situation for a man to be able to fight an enemy with his bare hands, so a sport of hand combat was devised to help him along the way.

“Somewhere along the line we lost the reason for sports, I think. It becomes life itself. Something it was never intended to be. Personally, I always thought grown men should find something more worth while to do than play games. Certainly we should find something more worthwhile to do than watch them. But again, that’s my personal opinion.

“I have never been able to understand the interest in sports by grown men. I’ve seen them come to blows over a damn football game! I know personally of two brothers who disagreed way back in 66 over a Green Bay Packers game and haven’t talked to one another since! Now one of them is dying and the other one still won’t go visit him!

“Remember the 2004 election? Remember one of the Democratic contenders was a General called Wesley Clarke? I was sitting at a poker table here in Vegas during that election. A man who was the very picture of Wesley Clarke sat down along side of me. I looked over and commented on his look alike.

‘You look just like Wesley Clarke!’ The man asked me who Clarke played for.

“And that wasn’t the end of it! I thought that was the funniest story I ever heard. I was relating it at a blackjack table the next day, and when I got to the punch line, a woman asked;

‘Well, who DOES he play for?’ I folded my tent and never mentioned it again. I was going to write to Clarke and mention to him that he may have a problem in the election due to name recognition.

“Sports seem to trump any activity here in Vegas. Last year, after the playoffs in the NFL, the sports field was pretty slim; not much going on. I was passing the bar here and I heard two guys watching TV cheering like mad. I looked up and found they were watching school bus racing. Go figure. There must be something to sports for so many to waste their time with it. I’ve just never found out what it was. Maybe it’s a woman thing. Well, my friend, it’s getting on here. I want to get in a game for a little while this afternoon, and here are two already.”

Jayne got up and reached for her purse.

“How about dinner tonight,” Brett asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” Jayne said.

“I’m going to work on my book if I can get started. I’m running into some kind of block on this one. I think I’ll pass for tonight. How about lunch again tomorrow? Same Place?”

She knew he had little choice.

“See you at noon then.”

She walked away.