FASCISM IN THE AIR

I fly Southwest Airlines when I basically have no choice. I like the prices and the convenience of flying into and out of small airports. But it's kind of like flying on a bus and comfort isn't a priority for the company. But I've always been happy to save the money on a short jaunt to San Francisco, which is only an hour so what the heck. But I have a meeting of a Board I'm on in San Fran in a few weeks and I'll try to avoid Southwest if I can. That's because my pal Jim sent me a report from KRNV in Reno this morning entitled "Woman Kicked off Southwest Airlines Flight For Wearing Anti-Bush Shirt."

An anti-fascist patriot from Portland named Lorrie Heasley was flying home from L.A. but when the plane stopped in Reno she was kicked off the plane because she was wearing a patriotic t-shirt. The corporation claims her freedom of speech doesn't matter because the offending t-shirt was causing "safety concerns."

Lorrie seemd philosophic, saying, "There are bigger problems in the country, I can't believe people can be so petty." At the Reno stopover she was told to cover the shirt, so she did. But she took a nap during the layover and the offending shirt became visable to the vigilant politico-fashion police at which point she was given an ultimatum: change shirts or get off the flight. "I didn't feel that I should have to change my shirt, because we live in the United States, and it's freedom of speech and it was based on the movie 'The Fockers,' and I didn't think it should have offended anyone."

But it did. The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush Administration, and a phrase "Meet the Fuckers." Sounds like a perfectly reasonable shirt to me! And while Southwest may have kept the peace on it's afternoon hop to Portland, Lorrie, not afraid to use her freedom of speech, will now be using her freedom of choice. "I most likely wont be flying Southwest Airlines again after this." Me neither.