Inhumanity to Man

Mrs. Cow found this today on Facebook. I do not know who posted this. Assuming this to be true, something is horribly, horribly wrong. Judge for yourself.

Alaska - - I request a complete and thorough review of the actions of stafftoday.. at the Redmond Oregon Airport. Cameron Clark reports, from theRedmond, Oregon Airport today.. """"i witnessed today, what i consider to bethe worst of humanity.standing in line at an @alaska airlines ticket check in, in redmond oregon,i watched as a disabled/mentally and physically challenged couple were leftstanding in the front of a line by the ticket attendant, melissa, who didn'tsay a word- no "final call, redmond to seattle"-- no "if you are flying toseattle, it's too ...late to make this flight," etc-- nothing.when a different agent appeared 1/2 hour later-- the flight still had notleft. i asked for a quick "side bar" with the new agent-- telling her thatthis couple needed some leeway-- some additional help. she quickly informedme that "we treat every single customer the exact same here"-- she wasannoyed by my insistence and advocacy. i tried to explain to her that hercolleague had left the man and his companion alone, without saying a word tothem. that they were "different" and that it would be ok for her to makeexceptions for them (uttering something like, "exceptional circumstancessometimes require, exceptional responses").melissa finally agreed to try to get the man on the flight-- but hecouldn't bring his luggage (ug).he had a hard time walking-- no one offered him a wheelchair or asked howthey could be helpful. he stumbled off toward the safety inspection line.predictably, he didn't understand/comprehend their restriction of hisluggage, and got stuck in security.while this was going on, the ticket attendant and myself were continuing tohave quiet words about how they needed extra help-- she told me that "ididn't know the whole story"-- that he had the "same problem yesterday,showing up late to his first flight." i told her that i thought there was areal reason he was struggling to make it anywhere on time, and that this wascause for some compassion and some exceptions to rules, and some additionalassistance. by now i was fully annoying her. she had her rules, and she wasgrowing tired of my moral compass.security ended up sending the man back, telling him in the confusion aroundhis luggage that there was no longer enough time for him to make hisairplane, without the plane running late.the original attendant, melissa, returned, and lightly shamed the couplefor being late for the second time in a row, telling them there was no waythe man could get to bellingham before 9pm now.the man and woman broke into tears. his "nervous system hurky/jurkyness"became profound. he begged her to help him. nothing.i asked tiffany to go on with the kids, that i wanted to stick around andadvocate for this couple for the 20 minutes i could and still make my ownflight...i asked the man for his name. "brent" he and his companion were easily 70something. he was crying something fierce by now. i asked him what hiscondition was. he said he had late stage parkinsons, and that his companionhad MS. i asked to speak to the on site manager- a man named "jim cook." jimlistened to me politely tell him the story about the man with parkinsons,and the woman with MS, and how none of his staff did anything to offer themadditional assistance when it was clear to all 20 of us in line, how muchthey needed it and deserved it, and then he explained to me that the "lawsdon't allow alaska airlines to provide anyone, for any reason "specialtreatments." i wrote that comment down, word for word. he responded bysaying, "so great, you are going to take me completely out of context aren'tyou?" i said, "what other context is there?" i asked you why your staffdidn't help these people, and, in that exact context, you backed up youremployee who told me that everyone is treated exactly alike. he stood bythis position.the end of this story is sad to the core. after wrapping up with mr. cooke,i talked to brent for a bit longer.this trip- redmond to seattle/seattle to bellingham, was allowing him tosee his daughter one final time, who works on the ferry system and is out onthe water for most of her time-- she was scheduled to meet him in bellinghamat 3pm today. he said that it was a "bucket list" item that he could nolonger realize. i asked him if she could get off the ferry and wait for himtomorrow-- and he said that she was only available for this brief timetoday-- that he was to join her on the ferry, and that otherwise she'd beout on the water for days-- his trip was done. he couldn't re-schedule. hewas simply, now, in defeat, asking for his money back.what part of this story is "ok" in any way?what happened to our collective sense of decency, of compassion, of ourdisposition to help those in need of extra help.alaska airlines. you broke a man's heart today. you maintained your policy,and ignored an opportunity to do the right thing.you broke my heart too.if i knew who to contact, i would contact them and invite them to pay forthis man's daughters unpaid leave, and provide her a ticket to come see herfather? short of that, i know of nothing that could undo the inhumanity iwitnessed today.