Visitor Comments: 12

• (12) LindieLee , January 20, 2008

  Unclaimed becuase the airlines lost it.

  Greater effort should be made to return the lugged to the owners.
  
  I personally, put a large note in my luggage with my address in it. However,
  
  I don't know it anyone really looks in the luggage to find any idenification.
  
  Looks to me that the airlines and the town in Alabama are making a
  
  prophet over the sloppy handling of baggage. What percentage of these
  
  bags are truely unclaimed, meaning no one showed up to find them? I certinaly can understand truley unclaimed, unwanted or abondoned luggage being sold off but I presume thats a very low number. Perhaps, we can better mark luggage for our own protection of there can be a see through window or pannel where we can put identifican that can be seen from the outside?
  
  
  
  
  
  

• (11) Sharon , July 12, 2007

  These are a few of my favorite things.

  There's a simple joy and satisfaction in being able to use something for a long time. The favorite shirt, chair, toy, recording...is the one that you find yourself using time and time again until it wears out. Maybe if we accumulated less stuff, more of the stuff we already own would acquire "favorite" status.

• (10) Beverly Kurtin, Ph.D. , July 12, 2007

  It's Hard to be Green

  The co-president of a major United States company usually starts his talks by bashing one airline. He says he won't say who they are, but their motto should be Don't Expect Luggage To Appear."
  
  I toss out a lot of stuff I don't need or want. Resentment towards others, feh, who needs that? Jealousy has go to go into the trash as soon as it starts. Lashan hara, bad speech—gossip. I really don't throw it out, I just don't listen to it in the first place if I can avoid hearing it.
  
  Prejudice had to go too. There are times that I find that I need to consciously have a talk with myself as to why I have a negative feeling towards someone I don't know. So I toss it out by starting a conversation with the person in question. I'm not thin, but very, VERY obese people used to make my physically ill by just looking at them. Now I say, "Hi, don't you just love this heat?" (I live in Texas.) I've found them to be, for the most part, very nice people who either have medical conditions or just can't stop eating. But they are, after all, fellow human beings.
  
  Arabs, however, still put me on guard. So I sometimes will start a conversation, but being a woman trying to talk with someone who feels I am beneath them, well…but I try, I try.
  
  Instead of using disposable batteries, I try to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. Paper usually doesn't get a chance to get printed on, I use .RTF (rich text format that can be used by most word processors regardless of the original program that created the text. I also use .PDF quite a bit. There are several free converters on the market. Cute PDF, for example, costs nothing and I don't have to print them, I either attach them as an email attachment or file them the way they are. The main exception is when I have articles like this week's "The Earth is Flat" that needs to be printed and handed out to as many people as possible.
  
  Even water bottles get reused two or three times. Then they're sterilized with a mixture of bleach and water and used again.
  
  But you know something? Kermit had it right when he said, "It's hard to be green." But it fun, too!
  

• (9) Joey , July 11, 2007

  I agree with Annette, there should be better ways to return baggage to its owners, though, if there is luggage that is never claimed and would otherwise be thrown out, I think it can be sold. But even then, it would be better to donate it to the Salvation Army or some other form of charity.
  
  God bless.

• (8) Annette , July 11, 2007

  it was LOST by airport staff, not discarded by owner

  In March of 2007 my 9:15am flight from Toronto to Newark finally left at 11pm. And my luggage was nowhere to be traced for over 6 hours along with MANY others. I was dismayed at how many people work at the airport, so many systems in place, and the poor service so many people got that day due just because of cancelled flights. My sister's direct flight San Francisco to Hong Kong also had lost 2 of her luggage. The airports need to simplify themselves; there is no excuse for so much 'lost luggage'. The only luggage we'd want to lose is if we needed to detonate a bomb. It's all well labelled if not by owner, by the airline staff. A central baggage consortium for all the airlines would be a good start.

• See All Comments Add Comment

Related Articles