Madness in the skies
On a trip back from the Middle East, Iraqi blogger and activist Raed Jarrar was not allowed to board a flight at JFK airport because he was wearing a T-Shirt that said “We will not be silent” in English and Arabic. Representatives of Jet Blue Airways forced him to change his T-Shirt saying wearing it was like “going to a bank with a T-Shirt reading ‘I am a robber.’”
Or this:
08/21/06 “The Independent” – – Muslim leaders yesterday spoke of their dismay after a passenger mutiny in which several British families refused to travel on a plane with two Asian men.
The men were forced to leave the flight after fellow passengers wrongly suspected them of being terrorists. Several people on board flight ZB 613 from Malaga to Manchester demanded their removal.
Cabin crew informed Spanish authorities and the men were ordered off the Monarch Airlines flight and questioned by police for several hours. They were eventually cleared and put on an alternative flight.</i>
Lets see. Traveling next month by plane, make sure I:
Don’t bring water, chapstick or a bomb. Check.
Abandon freedom of speech and the right to free association at tarmac? Check.
Am I the only person who respects the acknowledgement of risk more than the illusion of safety?
