Silverman: If you see something, say something

That sounds like a fire alarm, I thought to myself.

I was walking through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport last month and heard what sounded like a fire alarm. It was in an echoey (yes, that’s a word) part of a heavily trafficked passageway. Most people just walked past it. Some slowed down, turned their heads, shrugged and went on. That’s mostly what I did, perhaps with a bit more looking around.

About 100 yards later I told an airline employee about it and went my way.

As is not atypical, my flight was delayed due to storms raking across part of the country. After getting tired of sitting around, about three hours later I went on a walkabout.

The alarm was still going.

This time I found a police officer, and we went investigating. While we were looking around, an airport employee came by and mentioned that the alarm had been reported to maintenance … and had been going since the previous day.

To say that’s unacceptable is an understatement. Here’s why: People get used to hearing the alarm and get used to it. “It’s always this way” becomes the attitude. Then, one day, the alarm is real and something alarming happens.

Proving that point, the police officer and I looked around a bit more and realized that there were two alarms going off. In the echoey walkway, they blended into one sound. One of them was the reported, inspected and ignored alarm. The other was a security door that was ajar.

Let’s just say that the officer didn’t ignore that.

Think about it. How many times has an indication of possible trouble been ignored and something terrible happened? Yes, most of the time it turns out to be nothing, a waste of time, a distraction.

Most of the time.

I had been at the airport for over six hours now and had two more to go. I was tired, so this column was going to be short. I’ll leave you with the following …

You’ve seen the signs: If you see something or hear something, say something. You don’t have to jump to the worst conclusion, but you can certainly help make sure the warning is benign.

Addendum: It turns out that due to storms I ended up stuck in airports or extending hotel stays well over 80 hours either on the way out or the way back from my meetings.

You’d think I would have had enough time to add something to this article. Instead, I wrote that series about Social Security that ran here a few weeks ago. I guess that was the silver lining.

Gary Silverman, CFP® is the founder of Personal Money Planning, a retirement planning and investment management firm located in Wichita Falls. You may contact him at www.PersonalMoneyPlanning.com .

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Silverman: If you see something, say something