Get into the streets and into airports to block traffic, the activists shout. Let’s punish the president for trying to ban illegal immigration. For your elderly travel4seniors.com editor, the current scenario brings back disturbing childhood memories from the 1930s.

When I was a kid, city streetcar employees were paid less than a dollar an hour. As labor movements evolved, the workers often attempted to negotiate for more living wages. The union tactics then were to shut down the city transportation system until the bosses complied. Of course, the disruption prevented ordinary citizens from getting to their daily jobs and kids couldn’t attend school.

That put heavy social and political pressure on the bosses. It worked, and the strikes were successful then in raising minimum hourly pay a nickel or a dime. Although today’s disruption of travel is on a much larger scale, and more political than economic, the tactics are the same.

If you have air and city travel plans during this unfortunate crisis, be sure to keep an hour-by-hour check on the latest info, and plan accordingly. As with many deliberate social and political unrest actions, the most physical dangers and inconveniences will hurt the innocent traveler.