Page 25 - bon-dia-aruba-20200515

A25
U.S. NEWS Friday 15 May 2020
Among the mainstays of 2020 claimed

by the pandemic: Spring

Continued from Front for face-to-face contact,” Spring is also a time to sow
says Nangalama, a junior what can’t be reaped for
In “The Waste Land,” when studying global public he- months. But uncertainty
T.S. Eliot famously castiga- alth at New York University. is all that’s taken root for
tes “the cruellest month” “I miss this precious contact others whose future liveli-
of April as a time of “mixing and this spring, I will feel hoods depend on the me-
memory and desire,” he more alone than ever.” taphorical seeds typically
might as well have descri- Beyond sunshine and miles- planted during this time. In this April 23, 2020 file photo a Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis
to a runway for take off from Denver International Airport in
bed the entire season in tones missed, spring is inter- Katie Lloyd doesn’t even Denver.
the strange days of 2020. twined with culture and re- like spring. She thrives in Associated Press
“Right now, when we’re ligion. Easter is quite literally winter, growing up in Buffa-
cooped up in our apart- Consumers, lawmakers
ments ... we kind of get a
glimpse of how we expe- rip airlines for
rienced spring last year,
when we experienced all withholding refunds
the people coming out into
the streets and the rebirth
of life,” says Matthew Mers- By DAVID KOENIG
ky, who teaches a course AP Airlines Writer
on modern literature and When her Las Vegas hotel shut down and returned
the environment at Boston her money, and both Nevada and her home state of
College. “And we expe- Ohio issued stay-home orders, Helen Moon canceled
rience it now negatively,” the flight that she and her husband had booked on
he says, “through memory Frontier Airlines and asked for a cash refund.
or its absence.” In this May 8, 2020, file photo, a visitor wearing a protective No dice. Frontier offered only a travel credit instead
May isn’t looking that great, mask walks through Domino Park, in the Brooklyn borough of of the refund because Moon – and not the airline
either. As the weather New York. — canceled the $970 reservation. "We were follow-
warms, sort of, many pu- Associated Press ing the government restrictions, they said shelter in
blic pools and beaches place, and we had nowhere to sleep," Moon says.
are still inaccessible. Base- about renewal. Sikhs com- lo, New York, and spending "Why would you fly somewhere if you had no ac-
ball stadiums remain emp- memorate the formaliza- years partaking in moun- commodations?" There are thousands of other airline
ty; schoolchildren remain tion of the faith on Vaisak- tain sports in Colorado. She customers just like Moon who canceled bookings
home. College students hi, a holiday that shares its now lives in Alaska, where because of the coronavirus epidemic and can't get
still shuffling from class to name with Punjab’s spring she and her husband co- their money back. Some Senate Democrats are pick-
class in parkas were sent harvest festival. May 1 mar- own the Alaska Dogstead ing up the issue. "At a time when families are strug-
home before spring se- ked Beltane, a fire festival Mushing Company with Idi- gling to pay for food, for housing, for prescriptions,
mesters could really live up of Celtic origin and a mid- tarod musher Nicolas Petit. it's absolutely unconscionable that the airlines won't
to their name. Spring’s gifts spring sabbath celebrated Fresh off her own rookie return this money to consumers," Sen. Edward Mar-
aren’t completely out of by witches and pagans. season as a dogsledding key, D-Mass., said during an online news conference
reach, particularly as stay- Haley Murphy, 32, the ow- musher, Lloyd says Alas- with consumer groups. Markey and four other Senate
at-home orders expire. But ner and operator of ATL kans call spring “breakup Democrats proposed legislation on Wednesday that
in hard-hit New York City, Craft in Atlanta, has been season” — not for relation- would require airlines to give full cash refunds to pas-
densely populated with working in occult practices ships, but for the melting sengers during the pandemic, even if it was the cus-
millions who often have no for 14 years. For her, Bel- ice that creates “one big tomer who canceled. They say they will try to include
backyards, residents are tane is a significant rite in sloppy mess for a month or the requirement in any further virus-relief measures.
left to catch spring’s sunshi- which communing with the so” as snow becomes rain. The senators have previously estimated that airlines
ne by awkwardly angling Earth through planting is a It’s an important time, an are holding back more than $10 billion by refusing to
from fire escapes and small centerpiece. She says it’s opportunity to prepare for pay cash refunds.
balconies — or risk walks. about “what needs to be the summer tourist season Anna Laitin, director of financial policy for Consum-
Samali Nangalama, 23, planted, but also looking that’s vital to Alaska’s eco- er Reports, said in some cases airlines have pushed
has lived in New York for six at each other and seeing nomy. “It’s normally the vouchers even when it was the airline that canceled
years and recently moved us come out of our hermit excitement for the summer the flight. Industry officials say that problem has been
within walking distance of shells of winter, watching adventures and the exci- fixed. The airlines are struggling to survive a 90% drop
Harlem Hospital, where she each other bloom and get tement for the tourists co- in air travel due to the pandemic. U.S. carriers are
awakens and falls asleep to the sun on our faces and ming here,” she says. “Now burning through at least $350 million a day, accord-
the sound of sirens. As the the freckles on our faces.” everything is either paused ing to their trade group, Airlines for America.
virus ravages vulnerable But with social distancing indefinitely or a giant ques- The trade group says airlines are following U.S. Trans-
black and brown commu- mandates, her coven tion mark.” portation Department regulations, which require
nities, she describes a “pa- couldn’t come together That sense of uncertainty cash refunds only when the airline cancels the flight.
ralyzing fear” that has kept for Beltane, which she con- is pervasive, with so much "We are sticking to the regulations, as we have to, for
her in her apartment this ducted in solitude this year. unclear. Some countries a very simple reason: We want to preserve the jobs in
spring, a stark adjustment Amid the pandemic, she’s and U.S. states have loo- our industry, we want to be part of the economic re-
for a season she usually taken to sending members sened restrictions, but ex- covery," the trade group's president, Nicholas Calio,
views as “a time ripe with packages for other rituals, perts fear that might cause said at a Senate hearing last week.
opportunity and optimism.” which are then conducted a resurgence of infections If Congress forces the airlines to pay cash refunds, it
“I know it is assumed that over FaceTime. that could, as the sea- will "drive the companies towards bankruptcy, which
Generation Z spends their “We have to change with son progresses, produce would happen very quickly at the rate things are go-
life glued to screens, but the times,” she says, “and months even crueler than ing," Calio said.q
there is no replacement we have to adapt.” April.q