Terenz,

Sometimes if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is in fact a funky goose. Fair enough. That doesn't make it racism to wonder if other quacking, waddling feathered creatures might not be ducks.

The point is that you're ascribing racist motives to people who are simply discussing an incident based upon the information they had at hand from multiple news sources. No one invented the color of his skin or hair or religion.

He DOES appear through the coloring of his skin and hair and facial features to possibly be of middle-eastern origin. The fact that he is a muslim also contributes to this impression. The first NEWS REPORTS described him this way.

Now granted, there are blond hair'd blue eyed muslims and jews. They are however, in the minority. Most persons from the mediterrainian do share dark hair & a swarthy/dusky complexion. Richard Reid has dark hair and a swarthy/dusky complexion.

It's not a leap to think he might be Arab. It's not even a big step. The passengers thought so and they were point blank in his presence for hours.

So.. let's review:
dark hair
swarthy/dusky complexion
muslim
trying to kill a lot of people.

Who else met those criteria? Hmm.. well, I can think of 19 guys right off the bat. More if you start to include various suicide bombers.

Not ONE of whom appear to be blonde hair'd blue eyed guys from Trondheim, Norway.

Frankly, I find it hard to take your complaint very seriously in this instance. While it was a mistake to think him of Arab descent, it was an honest one based upon available information and previous events. That's going to happen from time to time as we are imperfect creatures and occaisionally mistake a goose for a duck.

I personally find it MUCH more troubling that an obvious Arab-American was kept off a flight solely because of his skin color. Once the local law had confirmed he was Secret Service it absolutely WAS NOT an issue of aircraft security.

To argue otherwise is to say that man with absolutely the highest level of security clearance in this country and who is allowed access to The President of The United States on a DAILY and CONTINUING basis is both an immediate threat AND a disloyal citizen with hostile intent to the people of the United States.

THAT, is what that American Airlines pilot directly implied by refusing this Secret Service Agent carriage. He, in effect said: "I don't trust you because you're Arab, and even when shown you are a United States Secret Service agent I still don't trust you.. because you're Arab."

The argument of AA is absolute and utter Horse Hockey and it makes me personally livid that they would even try to stand with the perpetrators of this travesty.

They should rename themselves UN-American Airlines, or maybe just Bigot Air.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

[This message has been edited by Bouncer (edited 12-27-2001).]