Posted on 10/13/2005 11:20:35 AM PDT by pabianice
New York, New York (AHN) - Southwest Airlines has confirmed today that it removed a woman from one of its flights over a political message on a T-shirt. The woman says she'll sue.
Lorrie Heasley was asked to leave her flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon on Tuesday for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the moniker "Meet the F_ckers," derived from the movie; "Meet the Fockers."
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines told CNN that the airline felt that the T-shirt was offensive, adding that the incident is about "decency."
Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal, "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman told the Gazette-Journal that the airline's contract with the Federal Aviation Administration contains rules that say the airline will deny boarding to any customer whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."
FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the newspaper that no federal rules exist on the subject.
I'm a bit torn about this...was the word offensive? Unfortunately, I see alot of people wearing t-shirts with that word. The disdain and humiliation should come from good people, I don't know if throwing her off of the flight was the right thing. I'm interested to hear what others think. If it were a shirt with Bill and Hillary with similar text, would you be mad she was thrown off? I hope everyone is honest here.
More power to Soutwest!
Freedom for me but not for thee, huh Heasley? Southwest is a private company with the same rights as you, you vulgar trollop. You are perfectly welcome and encouraged to find another airline.
The headline is a bogus one as well. It wasn't the political statement that got the idiot ejected it was the vulgarity. The writer knows this and with with the political angle anyway. Dishonesty and the media go togethe like Michael Moore and pork chops.
Already posted.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1498112/posts
If it were a shirt with Bill and Hillary with similar text, would you be mad she was thrown off?
It's not the politics of the message, it's that word. That word alone should be enough to have her thrown off the plane. If you can't conduct yourself civilly, you can expect to be asked to leave a lot of places. Actions have consequences.
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Politically Offensive T-Shirt my butt. The shirt was offensive period.
I wish I would have been on that flight. Instead of kicking her off, I would have asked for the seat next to her. By the time the flight arrived that shirt would have been torn to pieces. Think I'll take a can of spray paint with me now on..you know, the kind they use to color their hair?
If she got off mid-flight wouldn't that have been at 30,000 feet. Just asking the obvious.
Well, isn't throwing somebody off a flight an example of showing disdain?
The airline would be in the right even if Bin-Laden were the object of the vulgarity. But then, I half-support blue laws against voicing obscenities in the presence of women and children.
All the Golf Courses I play won't allow shirts W/O collars.
Shirts with collars usually don't have controversial info on them.
I have a t-shirt that has a picture of Hillary as Hitler, and the other night I actually was approached by the owner of a diner that asked me to leave because it would "offend" his largely blue-collar Union customers.
I told him to go pound salt.
Anybody see her photo?
I did.
She looks like Cindy Sheehan after a three week malt liquor and twinkie binge.
Words that are not allowed on the public airwaves should ALSO NOT be allowed for public consumption, i.e. on a flight.....if she wants to wear the shirt in her backyard or at her parents house, that's OKAY, but in public...NO. There should be SOME standards.
SW was right to kick her off.
Politically Offensive T-Shirt my butt. The shirt was offensive period.
Ditto.
I understand they DID ask her to do just that.
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