Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a public servant devoted to safeguarding the union, is finally making progress on blocking a ghastly prospect from ever becoming part of American life: phone calls on commercial flights.
According to a Tuesday Roll Call report, he is trying to finagle the ban into the Transportation Department budget after fretting about hypothetical airborne phone chatters for years.
“I would suggest that any senator who opposes banning cell phone conversations on flights be sentenced to sit next to a loud businessman talking to his girlfriend on a six-hour flight between New York and California,” Alexander reportedly said Thursday. “Keeping phone conversations off commercial flights may not be enshrined in the Constitution, but surely it is enshrined in common sense.”
Per Roll Call, the possibility has been a thorn in the senator’s side for years, leading to an impassioned speech in 2014. “Stop and think about what we hear in airport lobbies — babbling about last night’s love life, next week’s schedule, arguments with spouses — and then imagine hearing the same thing while you’re trapped in 17-inch-wide seats thousands of feet above the ground,” he said then.
