J Bull’s Pen

What Motivates us as a People? If we take a look at our lives, what is our motivation for doing our mundane and tedious activities? Fame or Fortune? I believe all motivation stems from these two factors. Every day I wake up and go to school or work or both, and the most frequently asked question by my three year old is, Why? Now of course the common answer would be ” to make money”, or for school it is “to one day have the chance to make more money”.  In the work place we are surrounded by, hard workers, workers, and not so hard workers. Every place of business has them the overachievers, those who do what is asked, and those who do just enough to keep their jobs. So back to my question, What is our Motivation? Most would say Money, others would say Fame. Now Fame can be “Britney Spears”,or just bieng popular at work. I feel it all revolves around Marketability! If we apply for a job what is the first thing we do? Write a resume! Our resume reflect our accomplishments. We tell about our Education, our Work history, our Skills, and we give names of people who if approached would be likely to lie for us and say how great we are. Resumes are the most common marketing tool that we use. Why do I go to College? The parties, panty raids, Girls. None of the above, for me anyway. I go so that I can put on my resume under Education: Bachlor’s in Business. This piece of paper is supposed to multiply my income by Two. A degree provides me with marketability. Why do I work 10 times harder than the next guy and 20 times harder than those who feel everthing is owed to them? I do it so that I have marketability. What is so great about marketability? It is the life force of the business world. If I am not going to make a company better just because I am hired then why would  any company want to pay me? We sell ourselves every day! If we work hard and show that we are accountable for our actions and take ownership of our jobs, then we will have a better chance for a raise or a promotion or just positive reinfrocement from a superior, or from Stewart Smally,” I”M Good enough, I’m Smart enough, and gosh darnit people like me”. Over the past 40 years the world has become fixated on what can I get for the least amount of effort or money? What is free? Nothing is free. Everything that we are able to receive has a price. Price could be money, effort, or knowledge.  For instance “Buy one get one Free”, you had to spend money the buy one, then after you buy one you get a second free. That is basically half off, NOT FREE. In the work force we get what we market ourselves for. If we have ambitition to want more than we have, then we must increase our Marketability! President Kennedy said it best” Ask not what my country can do for me, but what I can do for my country!!”

   Salt Lake City National Airport has been selected along with about ten other Airports in the nation to use a new security tool.  A Body Scanner. This machine will take a digital image of your person and display it on a screen for a TSA worker to view.  The agent is in a separate room. This digital picture is like an X-ray, it penetrates through your clothes but not your skin.  Now the first question that should come to mind is, How many pixels does the scanner’s lens have? If not well don’t feel bad.  This is not like your digital camera that takes a Color and Crystal Clear picture of a naked body. The image that is viewable is like a X-ray photo. That same Black, blue photo. So you are not able to see in playboy detail a naked body. Also you would not be able to identify a person by the image. This scanner is able to see any objects that may be stashed in your clothes or in parts of the body that was made for an EXIT ONLY.  I think this is a great tool, Metal Detectors would become obsolete. The scanner would bring to view everything that is under your clothes. No more undressing for the security guards they will just be able to take an X-ray. This will save on time to get on your flight. Not to mention the safety one would feel knowing nothing is passing through security that would put your life in danger. As with any new technology there is opposition. The biggest concerns are, one, taking a naked digital picture. Two, are these pictures saved into a database? Three, will these pictures be sent out on the Internet? As previously stated the image is not like a photo for your album. TSA has stated these pictures are not saved. No upload capability to the Internet. Also the image is not identifiable. This scanner is the first tool that has been put into place that will provide the “Friendly Skies” atmosphere since 9-11.