I've always

found a quick post-holiday getaway to be helpful in making it through

the remainder of a potentially depressing winter without going bonkers.

To that end, my wife and I will leave our son in the capable hands of

his grandparents for three days and spend the second weekend of January

in sunny south Florida.

While Kelly

has no qualms about spending some quiet time near the ocean in a warm

climate, she keeps reminding me about one minor detail: "We have

to fly to get there." Granted, a 13-hour drive to Miami Beach would

not be feasible for a three-day weekend, but lower fares sparked by a

recent decrease in air travel made this trip seem too good to be true

when I planned it in October.

"I wasn't

a very good flier before Sept. 11," she reminded me last weekend

as we watched the Shoe Bomber escorted from Logan International Airport

in Boston by authorities after trying to ignite his feet. Just one more

example of how we live in a world filled with maniacs with no regard for

human life of any kind. As Charlton Heston so eloquently put it in the

original "Planet of the Apes" more than 30 years ago: "It's

a madhouse!"

Well, the way

I see it, you have two choices. You can decide that all is lost, go home,

turn out all the lights and pull the covers over your head. Or you can

decide that Someone bigger than you are is in control anyway, and you

do the best you can to live your life, but remember to be smart about

it.

My wife is

certainly allowed some trepidation as she steps on a commercial aircraft

not knowing who else is going to be traveling with us. I think that anyone

would be more concerned after having the images of two jets crashing into

the World Trade Center indelibly etched in our minds. But I believe I

have seen some very positive signs emerge in the past few months as well.

Take, for instance,

the Shoe Bomber I just referred to. Most of you have probably seen his

photo on television or in newspapers since his ill-timed terrorist attempt

last weekend. You may have noticed that he didn't look too good, that

he appeared to have been injured recently.

According to

some reports I have seen and heard, many of those injuries were sustained

in flight, as fellow passengers did not take too kindly to his plans to

blow up his shoes and perhaps take down the plane. He allegedly was struck

in the face with a fire extinguisher, injected with tranquilizers by a

couple of physicians on board, and guarded by a six-foot-eight professional

basketball player until the plane, originally bound for Miami from Paris,

made its emergency landing in Boston. While a handful of passengers struggled

to subdue this guy, other travelers reportedly passed long whatever they

felt could be used to put him down.

I feel pretty

good about flying with folks like that. It looks like a lot of people

are not going to take this anymore. Not only that, but now you never know

when you're going to get on a plane with an armed air marshal. And while

no one has officially authorized having armed pilots in the cockpit, it

wouldn't bother me if they started packing. Most commercial pilots are

military veterans with combat experience and weapons training, so that's

one more mark for our side.

Consider the

notorious "air rage" incidents of the past few years. Obnoxious

passengers, helped along with generous helpings of alcoholic beverages,

have started fights with flight attendants, tried to break into cockpits,

and even urinated on drink carts when they were denied that umpteenth

serving of liquor. An airport in Maine even created its own cottage industry

route where airlines could dump rowdy passengers into the waiting arms

of law enforcement.

What would

happen to one of those people now? These days, if you get liquored up

on an airplane and make a move for the cockpit, you're likely to be mistaken

for a terrorist and get the daylights beaten out of you. That's bound

to make a lot of sober, law-abiding air travelers breath a little bit

easier.

I would still

like to see some airline take a courageous step and ban alcohol on all

of its flights, not due to a federal regulation, but as a market-driven

move to see how the flying public would respond. It might become an industry

standard, like smoking regulations.

In the meantime,

I'm going to feel a little more relaxed flying to Fort Lauderdale in a

couple of weeks. I'll continue to encourage my wife as well. But I'll

also remind her to wear slip-on shoes, so that they're easier to take

off and be inspected for explosives at the airport.

[Monroe Roark

can be reached at [email protected] .]