Flying the friendly skies (NOT)

I'm writing from Iowa, where the locals seem to love the place, though it's charms are not yet apparent to me. I got here via the living nightmare that is modern American air travel. I've come to believe that if you sat down to design Hell, you'd end up with something quite a bit like what we've got in the airplanes and airports of the U.S. (I haven't traveled internationally for many years so I can't comment on that, though I have it on good authority that it's worse than domestic travel.) The icing on this particular cake is the astonishing apathy of the vast majority of the personnel whom you're forced to interact with. I remember a time not that long ago when the staff in the airline industry were so cheerful and so chipper that you needed an insulin shot once you got to your destination. Now, they act like they've been given a death sentence, which includes having to supervise you. And my fellow travellers and I have been reduced to acting like cattle, shuffling from one indignity to another, trying to follow the blizzard of ever-changing rules, and having abandoned any hope of retaining our dignity. I've always liked being in different places, but I never much cared for the process of getting there. But airline travel has devolved into something truly tortuous. It's a strong argument for taking the train.