[Trombone-l] Valery Ponomarev

[james meador]

Chris,

The bottom line is the security team was out of line by asking Valery to 
check his trumpet IF he had met all the requirements for bringing such an 
item onboard an aircraft as carry-on baggage, which apparently he had.  Any 
imbecile could simply open the case and see that it was a musical 
instrument, and as long as he didn't have any valve oil (or if he did it was 
less than 3 oz. as per the new airline restrictions on liquids and gels) or 
other liquid inside the case he should have been allowed to pass with no 
problems.

I live in the Yucatan, and I have flown to the U.S. and Europe numerous 
times in the last year.  EVERY TIME I FLY WITH MY INSTRUMENT I HAVE 
PROBLEMS!!  More often than not it is nothing more than a power trip from 
some pushy airline employee and has nothing to do with my or anyone else's 
security.  THAT is when I have a problem with airline security measures.

They broke the guys arm!!  How is that protecting anyone's security?  If we 
don't 'get on the airline' who will and how long will this kind of behavior 
continue?  Much like the CD copying thread going on right now, the bad guys 
will figure out a way to get around these so-called 'security measures' and 
cause more trouble.

I'm simply suggesting that these incidents of arm breaking, women being 
forced to drink their own breastmilk, and people being forced to crack open 
and drink $90 and $100 bottles of wine and champagne are ridiculous and do 
NOTHING to keep air travel safe.

James

======================
James N. Meador, Bass Trombone
Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán
999-221-5845 cell
011-52-999-221-5845 (from USA)
011-52-999-195-1144 home
jamesmeador at hotmail.com



From: Chris Tune <crtune at adelphia.net>
Reply To: Chris Tune <crtune at adelphia.net>
To: "Bill Dinwiddie" <billdin at comcast.net>, "List Trombone" 
<TROMBONE-L at server5.samford.edu>
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Valery Ponomarev
Sent: Tuesday, October 3, 2006 1:02 AM
Bad news, indeed.  Unfortunately told with much too much "spin". . .as Kos 
always seems to do (frankly, it is "almost" entertaining how he connects 
dots across the universe from the French airport to a great conspiracy 
somewhere in the Wash. D.C. area. . .hmmmm.).

I somehow doubt that the current administration has somehow influenced 
violent burly FRENCH guards at the CHARLES DEGAULLE airport.   No.  They are 
just your everyday, violent EUROTRASH.  and once Valery Ponomarev pushed 
back . . .that was when things got REALLY UGLY.

I've witnessed situations like this, only here in the U.S. I've never been 
around one where someone takes somebody into an out of the way place and 
does anything violent.  I HAVE had our band manager have to stay behind with 
airport police while he convinces them he is not insane. [he got the news 
Friday that his mom died. ..then he shepherded a band all over Arizona. . 
then he got stopped at the gate by boarding crew. . .then he lost his cool. 
. .rest is history. . .he caught up with us eventually. . .good thing nobody 
hit him. . .he is a lawyer and a litigator]

I also hope Valery litigates to the full extent of French law and wins 
"beaucoup d'or" (much gold).  Maybe brings it all the way to international 
law (:-) hmmmm try the burly French guys in the Hague. . . .hmmmm. . .lets 
see how they like that!)

Lets face it the whole "get on the airliner" thing is hateful and it does 
not examine the political sensibiliites of those who it drives mad.  It is 
just a regular "drag".  To everybody.  I can wish that Koz would 
de-politicize it properly, but he doesn't.

Chris