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August 14, 2008

Horrifying

This morning I saw an article on SmarterTravel.com (one of my favorite travel websites) with a roundup of their reader responses to the question of whether or not an airline should charge heavy customers more for a seat.

Some of the comments were just unbelievable, so nasty.

"Make these people stand on the luggage scale, maybe a little humiliation will be incentive to start doing something about it."

Do cruel and self-righteous always go hand-in-hand? Isn't there ever a way to find solutions without being so mean and devoid of simple human compassion?

Even though I know from experience that comments are almost always a reflection of the person making the remark (and not a reflection of me, or you, or the subject matter) it's still disconcerting and sad and makes me ashamed for the state of us all. And even though I know people feel this way about heavy folks, and anyone not like them (color, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, fashion choices, whatever) it's still weird to hear it, see it in print.

Posted by laurie at August 14, 2008 9:13 AM