Are Americans getting fed up with habitual whiners and self-proclaimed victims? Take the recent situation involving Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).
Congresswoman Jackson, a 63-year-old grown adult, took to social media on Tuesday to blame racial animus for an ongoing seat-stealing controversy involving a United Airlines flight. How many times will the race card be played until no one listens anymore?
What was the trouble this time for troubled Sheila Jackson? It seems Jean-Marie Simon, 63, a paying passenger on the previously named airline, became understandably annoyed when United Airlines unjustly took her first-class ticket on December 18th and gave it to none other than Ms. Jackson.
But hold on. The Texas Democrat claims it’s a ruse motivated by racial issues. Huh?
Playing the ever-tiresome race card, Jackson wrote, “Since this was not any fault of mine, the way the individual continued to act appeared to be, upon reflection, because I was an African American woman, seemingly an easy target along with the African American flight attendant who was very, very nice,” the lawmaker told her 50,000 Twitter followers.
The embittered congresswoman continued, “This saddens me, especially at this time of year given all of the things we have to work on to help people.” Apparently the American people owe this woman a debt of gratitude for her suffering.
One would think this minor situation would end there. You would be wrong. The story continued to have legs for days on end. It received front page coverage by the Houston Chronicle, The New York Post and went viral on the Associated Press, among others.
Ms. Simon also posted on social media a picture she had taken of Ms. Jackson Lee in the seat, which helped the story go viral. Why was Ms. Jackson in Ms. Simon’s seat? School teacher Simon insists that she never relinquished her seat voluntarily on the flight from Houston to Washington, DC because of “weather delays” as the airline claimed.
Simon wrote last week on Facebook, “I said I wanted my seat, that I had paid a lot of miles for that seat, and that it was United’s responsibility to undo the seat assignment and return it to me, the person who had paid for it.” It all sounds like a reasonable request.
The school teacher continued, “The gate agent said no, because I had ‘unreserved’ my seat and it had been given to another passenger, that she had been ‘upgraded.’ He said I could ‘stand here and argue’ and miss the flight or book another flight with another airline, meaning that I would lose my first-class ticket and pay for a second one. I said I wanted my seat, 1A, that I had paid for and selected in early December and one that the upgraded passenger in 1A was now freeloading, literally at my expense. He said that couldn’t happen because they couldn’t ‘disrupt’ what was already done.”
She finally had to settle for an Economy Plus seat so the congresswoman could get to her important business in Washington. The flight did leave with her from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Wouldn’t most Americans who fly relate to the dismay this caused the paying passenger with a reserved seat?
Not to United, because they were busying themselves to cover up the now viral incident. Their press release said, “After thoroughly examining our electronic records, we found that upon receiving a notification that Flight 788 was delayed due to weather, the customer appears to have canceled her flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. within the United mobile app.” the airline said in a statement.
If anyone believes that, Ms. Simon has swamp land she’d like to sell you. But things must be all right now since Ms. Simon received no written apology from the company’s corporate office.
Right.
United provided Ms. Simon with hush money too. On Facebook she wrote, “The $500 voucher I received was issued at the gate just before I boarded, just after United had cancelled my ticket. It was United’s idea of compensation for having bumped me from my seat and the gate agent gave me an ultimatum: take the voucher and get on the plane or find another flight.”
That didn’t stop self-proclaimed victim Rep. Jackson from claiming the last word. She told twitter, she would offer an apology “in the spirit of the season,” although one was not warranted.
Sheila Jackson Lee was once voted the “meanest” person in Congress.
Midterm elections are next November. Texas citizens have the privilege to then voice their opinion.
