Date: 1 March 2008
To: letters@globeandmail.ca
From: Geoffrey Smith
Subject: Flight into fury

Kudos to Margaret Wente for revealing the unfriendly skies for what they are. I remember how the Cold War made the United Sates and Canada more like their dreaded adversary--the evil Soviet empire. Now, it is clear that the war on terrorism has conflated air passengers with terrorists. My partner and I recently passed through Pearson Airport and were required to surrender two apples at U.S. customs. "These are foreign," the agent told us. "Might we eat them before we go through?" we inquired. "No," she thundered, tossing the Fuji apples into a trash bin. When we arrived in San Francisco and rented a car, we stopped at an upscale market in the Oakland hills. There sat a bin of Fuji apples, "grown in the U.S.A.," we saw. Moral of the story: whatever security personnel can do to make your flight less pleasant will be done.

Geoff Smith
Kingston