Tim Bonham wrote:

> So Michael, at least tell us the name of this airline, so we 
> can try to choose another one that treats it's customers better 
> the next time we travel.

When discussing his novel "The Jungle" Upton Sinclair once said 
that he'd aimed at the hearts of Americans, but seemed to have hit
them in the stomach (his story was about immigrants working in
the slaughterhouses and their suffering, but all people seemed to 
care about was the quality of the meat they produced).  The intended 
goal of my post was to raise awareness regarding the threat to 
civil liberties posed by the War on Terror not as a consumer report
on airline service, so I think I'll leave the airline unnamed.

>P.S. "he proceeded to tell me that he ... could have me branded as a 
>trouble maker". And for those of us on mpls-issues list, this is news?   
:)

It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. :-)  After all I'm
an educator.  As a constitutional law attorney once told me,
the First Amendment was not written for those of us who conform
to the status quo. The Framers had intended it as protection
for revolutionaries; namely the same type of "trouble makers" 
that they themselves were.  If we don't have the courage to
stand up for the little things, how will we be able to defend
our principles when the cost is much higher?  At what point
do we remain silent and at what cost?  It is a question that
we all answer for ourselves, and I have given a lot of thought 
to my answer.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park

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