Friday, June 04, 2004
Um ... I don't really have anything to say about this (other than, maybe, you go girl):
The showing of an anti-war campaign poster in a D/FW Airport terminal has sparked a he-said-she-said clash between the world's biggest airline and a self-described "recovering Republican" on her way back from a Libertarian convention.
Carole Ward, 57, says she was ejected from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Tuesday night after showing military recruits an 8 ½-by-11-inch poster of a composite illustration of President Bush made up of the faces of soldiers who have died during the Iraq conflict.
An American Airlines spokesman said that some people found the poster offensive and that Ms. Ward became belligerent with the airline's gate agent.
"She's not only going around talking to these recruits, saying they shouldn't join the Army, they shouldn't fight in the war, she's also forcing [the poster] on them," said Tim Wagner, American Airlines spokesman.
He added that Ms. Ward presented a security threat and made some passengers feel uncomfortable.
But Ms. Ward, who was returning home to Albuquerque, N.M., from Atlanta, said she started a conversation with a few recruits among several dozen passing through the airport. She was waiting after her plane returned to the gate because of thunderstorms.
She passed around the poster, which bore the title "Faces of Death" and messages to stop a possible military draft and elect Libertarian Aaron Russo president. (He lost the nomination.)
"We weren't really causing a scene," she said. "I was talking to them like they were my kids."
