Lindbergh, Education and AT&T

This afternoon, I attempted to contact AT&T to cancel my aging father's Internet service that he quit using three months ago.  I needed to cancel it because payment is automatically deducted on his debit card.  While it might be simple to handle this on the AT&T site, my 89-year old father has difficulty remembering passwords, etc. and fails to write them down ... so I called AT&T after picking up a telephone number from the "contact us" page on their website.  After calling the number and selecting numerous options, I still had not spoken to a person after 15 non-productive minutes, nor had I come close to resolving the situation.  Remember, I'm calling AT&T, the source of all telephone communications since Ma Bell set up her first phone in Boston in 1877, and I can't even talk to a human being.  I ended up calling my trusted bank to resolve the issue, because AT&T clearly is not in the business of customer service and would not be bothered by a physical telephone call.

I held my boiling temper as I chatted with the young man at my dad's bank.  As I did, I recalled a statement by Charles Lindbergh who -- despairing at the effects of 'technological progress' that resulted from his solo, trans-Atlantic flight in 1927 -- reflected in 1964, "I realized if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."  Wanting to at least make a point with this young man on AT&T's technological failure, I asked, "How old are you?"

"I'm 28," he answered.

"Do you know who Charles Lindbergh was?"

"I think he was a President of the United States," he answered.

I finished my business and left the young man to his ignorant illusions and misguided education.  Does this country even educate any longer?