Rev. William Barber, Founder Of "Moral Mondays' Removed From American Airlines Flight

Rev. William Barber

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barber_II

Rev. William Barber removed from American Airlines flight

Mark Sumner

The Rev. William Barber, a progressive leader and founder of the Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina, was removed from an American Airlines flight over the weekend. 

The Rev. William Barber said in a statement he was removed Friday from a flight from Washington Reagan to Raleigh-Durham.

A nearby passenger said loudly that he had problems with "those people" and criticized Barber's need to purchase two airline seats for himself, said Barber, who is also president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

As with most such events, the airlines seem to be providing very little information: 

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said Sunday that a passenger who didn't follow crew instructions was removed from a flight. He said the passenger also grabbed a flight attendant but was allowed to travel the next morning on an American flight.

It appears that what happened was that another passenger made racist remarks, Rev. Barber rose to his feet to respond, and that was enough to have him removed from the flight while the racist flew on. It’s an incident that’s all too similar to many others where minority passengers were removed from flights after someone complained.

Rev. Barber spoke to Daily Kos members who visited with him at the St. James AME Church in Asheville, North Carolina, last September to suggest that the DK community should work more closely with Moral Mondays.

Now, because this is a Daily Kos gathering of bloggers… I want to tell you what your name really is. Your name is Baruch. That’s your name. Now, Baruch is the name that comes out of the Old Testament… Baruch in Jeremiah was Jeremiah’s scribe… every movement, ever moral movement of conscience needs a Baruch mechanism … Bloggers. 

This seems like one of those days when Baruch is needed.