I picked a bad day to give up Prozac

Rigoberto Alpizar

I read about the guy in Miami who was shot dead by police at the airport after he went nuts and ran around claiming he had a bomb. Boy. He sure picked a bad place and time to go off his meds. Doing it on public transportation is not it.

We were talking about this at work today. I couldn't help but wonder what the future holds for air travel. Perhaps people on mental meds will be denied access. Perhaps you will need a note from your shrink to fly.

I was thinking what might work is a big sign at the end of the walkway before you board the plane the says "DID YOU BRING YOUR MEDS TODAY?". Better yet... perhaps the airlines themselves can start handing out meds to the passenger.

"Good morning sir. Thank you for flying with us. Here is a cup of coffee, a bag of peanuts, and a bag of Prozac."

Maybe we will get to the point when as a condition of flying, we have to have our arms and legs locked to the seat so that we can do nothing but sit there.

I detect that there might be a trend here. So far, two Latin American men have been shot and killed by police in mistaken belief that they were preparing to detonate bombs on public transport. Remember the Brazilan guy in London a few months ago? Turns out he was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and reacted in the wrong way. The report is that this guy claimed to have a bomb, altough other witnesses claim they never heard him say this.