Posted on 08/17/2006 8:08:11 AM PDT by shhrubbery!
(CBS4) BOSTON Criminal charges could be filed Thursday against a Vermont woman who caused a disturbance aboard a London-to-Virginia jet that was diverted to Logan Airport.
59-year-old Catherine Mayo is being held by federal authorities in Boston.
Investigators say she was a claustrophobic passenger who became upset and interfered with the flight crew on United Airlines flight 923 Wednesday morning. The pilot declared an in-flight emergency and landed the plane at Logan. The Boeing 767 was escorted by two F-15 jets based out of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod.
Passengers say Mayo paced the aisles and peppered her incoherent mutterings with the word "Pakistan." They said two plainclothes men on board and flight attendants tackled the woman. She was handcuffed while the flight was diverted.
After a day filled with conflicting reports about what she was carrying, an FBI spokeswoman confirmed Mayo had a screwdriver, lighters and matches when she was subdued...
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs4boston.com ...
Posted: 2003-05-27 00:34AN AMERICAN IN PAKISTAN: Dear Senator Byrd
Catherine Mayo
America had the purest form of democracy, and the only reason it existed in its purity was because of Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin et al. Pure democracy is based on the belief that human beings will do the right thing if they are given enough freedom
I know your courage. I will always remember what you said on the day the bombs began to fall on Baghdad, that you wept for our country. On that day, democracy died.
In your remarks on the Senate floor on May 21, 2003, you ended with a note of hope, that Americans would eventually see the truth of what has happened to them. But we need to accept the fact that there is no such hope. I am an American who has lived outside the country for the past six months, and I have seen the truth as it has happened. But the ordinary American living in the country will never see it. Allowing that knowledge into consciousness would give him so much despair that he would never be able to recover.
Democracy is the best form of government that human beings can have. But because of its very nature, if it is not lived continuously in the present, its definition is forgotten. Today, no one in the world remembers what democracy is.
America had the purest form of democracy, and the only reason it existed in its purity was because of Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin et al. Pure democracy is based on the belief that human beings will do the right thing if they are given enough freedom. But it works only if that freedom is equalled by the same amount of discipline. The rules for democracy are many and complicated, and all the rules need to be obeyed all the time.
After 9/11, Americans forgot to monitor the system of checks and balances that informs their government’s functioning. All the power was given to a president not elected by the people. After that day, Americans forgot that they needed to be disciplined, even in the face of great fear.
By invading Iraq, America did an immoral thing that will have repercussions down through time. A few Americans see the horror of this now, of what was done in their name. But the other truth they will keep hidden from themselves, because it is just too much to bear — of their own free will, Americans allowed democracy to die. It will never appear again, because there will never again be a group of fearless, disciplined, free thinking men planning a revolution and writing a golden Constitution at the same time.
We need to think back to that era of 1776. A poor oppressed people, fearlessly farming a primordial land, realised that they were worth more than servants of the King of England. They got together and published works of protest, they staged demonstrations, they began to see themselves as a national entity. The English crown and parliament didn’t understand what was going on, because it had never happened before. We need to think about how amazing it was, because the people in the colonies were thinking through everything consciously before they did it.
Compare this to the “democracy” envisioned for Iraq, and you can see how much we have forgotten.
What we have forgotten is how unique democracy is in the history of mankind. It is not a natural progression from other forms of government. It only exists when its people believe in their own ability to create themselves, standing tall in a complex and sometimes violent world, solving their problems by following the rules and thinking things through.
In the course of one day, Americans decided to redefine who they were. I was in Vermont on 9/11, listening to Vermont Public Radio, and I heard my fellow Americans come to the conclusion by the end of the day that they were a vulnerable people not equal to the task. They were going to crawl into their homes and hide. I was horrified by this, I had never heard Americans talk this way before. I was hoping that by September 11, 2002, they would have worked through their fears and become a strong people again. But it never happened.
America now is full of institutions that no longer know why they exist — the Congress, the Supreme Court, the intricate system of branches of government from the federal down to the state level. Now, to Americans, the only real institutions are the Department of Homeland Security and their TV sets.
Why did this happen? Americans were acting totally out of character. The American democracy had been in existence for over 200 years, everyone knew how it worked. People like feeling strong, in charge of their own destinies. Americans were a proud people, eccentric, intelligent. When people feel their own freedom, they also feel their own bravery. Why did Americans give all that up in one day?
Senator Byrd, I am hoping that thoughtful Americans like you can find the answer to this question. Even though it is already too late, we need to know.
Cathy Mayo is an American journalist based in Pakistan
link
-----------------
"Ladies and Gentleman take my advice. Sometimes you have to just pull down your pants and slide on the ice"---Dr. Sydney Freedman
We have to understad - her whole world is melting.
Bush Deragement Syndrome claims another unfortunate moonbat.
This woman needs to do some serious jail time.
"Hold the MAYO!"
Check the quote at the bottom of Ms. Mayo's letter.
Interesting in view of another article today, stating that Ms. Mayo threatened to pull down her sweatpants when the flight crew tried to stop her from making repeated trips to the bathroom.
We are a Republic, not a democracy..
Another case of Mayo gone bad.
Great find!
I think you've got something there.
Release the jet, hold the Mayo..........
Interesting. We'll have to dissect the meaning of that sentence!
LOL
You know, there's a Clinic for people like her...
I doubt the "investigators" even found this yet!
Good find -- I'm guessing it's her -- both the article and the behavior on the plane show a "Catherine Mayo" who is mentally unhinged. I'm only surprised that more deranged leftists are not acting out on airplanes, but I suppose most of those types settle for demonstrations with fellow fanatics led by ANSWER, etc.
Good find. A leftist terrorist sympathizer. Hang the skank.
Maybe she was left out in the sun too long.
Wooo! It certainly sounds like the same one. I was pretty certain the "distraught passenger" would turn out to be a raving moonbat, btw. I guess maybe it's because so many people from Vermont are raving moonbats...no offense to any Vermont Freeper who might be reading these words!
I bet she did this on purpose to call attention to herself or her "cause." Or she's just nuts.
I wonder what her DU name is?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.