Like most people, I was horrified by the video that has been circulating on the Internet of a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight after he was unwilling to give up his seat when he was randomly selected by computer to do so.  As I understand it, the airline overbooked the flight but needed four seats to transport crew, and no passengers volunteered to give up their seats for the amount of compensation that was offered.

What is abundantly clear to me is that the compensation that was offered was not sufficient.  At some point, four people would have found it worth it to walk off that plane, but $800 in vouchers did not do it.  The airline put itself in this position in an attempt at maximizing profit, and by the same capitalist principles, it should’ve been forced to have the market dictate how much it should pay to get out of it.  Every passenger had his or her game of Deal or No Deal going on, and if all of them wanted to play of a game of chicken to get the first class airfare for life, then United could’ve just chartered a private plane for its folks.

What it should NOT have done is resort to force to remove a paying customer who was already in his seat and simply had the bad luck of being singled out by lottery in an oversell situation.  I don’t care who he is … doctor, fraudster, family man, criminal … his background is totally irrelevant to him being a person who deserves basic human decency and respect when a corporation determines how to deal with an f-up.

Our world has become way too anonymous to serve as much of a check on our behavior.  It’s so easy to treat someone badly when you never expect to see them again.  But ironically, the Internet, with all its anonymity, has resulted in some accountability … at least when so many of us can see moments of injustice like what occurred on that airplane.

We’re all in this thing called life together, and sometimes I think we can forget that.  I know I can.  I just hope that when we get caught up in the moment, we’re able to pause and think about how we would want to be treated if we were on the receiving end.  That … and boycott United.

Sending love to all of you because there isn’t always enough of it …

xoxo