This meme makes it seem like a group of troops are volunteering to fly abortion seekers around the country. The truth is much different, less impressive and mostly unrelated to the meme.
▪️Elevated Access is a volunteer pilot network that seeks to fly people in private aircraft to access abortion and “gender-affirming care.” It has no affiliation whatsoever with the military, and volunteers couldn’t wear their uniform or use military assets in any way.
https://elevatedaccess.org/about
▪️The organization claims to have 800 pilots who’ve volunteered to fly for them, but it’s unclear how many are from the military. The article bringing this to light simply says this:
🔹”The group does not know how many of those have current and former ties to the military because the application does not ask about their military background. But, some pilots have voluntarily shared their military backgrounds or sent photos of themselves in a military uniform.”
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/09/us-troops-are-volunteering-fly-abortion-seekers-across-state-lines/377604/
▪️So, maybe there are a handful of veterans or active duty members that volunteered, but it’s certainly not a group of troops doing this, nor does the organization have any affiliation or mention of troops on their website. It’s a manufactured story, any relation is incidental.
▪️Overall, the charity seems to be sort of a gimmick. From their website, they only list one flight launched, from Oklahoma to Kansas back in June. Which shortened a woman’s potential 5 hour drive to 10 min plus a 90 min flight, plus a ride share to the clinic.
https://elevatedaccess.org/news/elevated-access-flies-its-first-passenger-to-get-abortion-services
▪️One would assume they would list the amount of flights taken and women served if it was meaningful, but there’s no mention of it. As for the pilot volunteers, there is no obligation to perform any services, they are just signing up as a part of the network.
▪️In almost all circumstances, it would be far more efficient & cost effective to book an airline ticket or drive to the nearest clinic. Any charity seriously focused on providing access to services would go that direction. Offering private flights seems geared towards attention seeking.
▪️The requirements for pilot volunteers are only 200 hrs and a private pilot certificate, so beware. This isn’t a commercial outfit, recipients are guaranteed little more than an airplane ride from someone they don’t know, who might not be qualified to fly into inclement weather.
https://elevatedaccess.org/pilots
▪️This quote concerning their pilots might also give people some pause 😂
🔹“The easiest part is checking their pilot credentials,” Mike said. “The other part is having them send in statements of support for abortion and gender and affirming care, as well as talking to two references from them about their support for those things.”
https://www.flyingmag.com/hundreds-of-pilots-sign-up-to-provide-transport-for-womens-medical-care/
▪️It should also be noted this charity incorporated in April, before the leaked Dobbs decision even made news, so it wasn’t started initially in response to that.
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
