Shira Golding (flickr)

Yesterday I was looking through the NY Times’ online Travel Section, and ran across a feature article entitled “An Air Travel Activist is Born”. The article is about a middle-aged women named Kate Hanni, who was stranded aboard an American Airlines flight, on December 29, 2006, for 3+ hours. Apparently there was some confusion amidst American Airlines and the flight was not cleared for take-off. Instead of letting the passengers off the aircraft, they were forced to stay in their seats for over 3 hours (as is airline policy).

The article the continues on to tell how this event lit a fire under Kate Hanni, who supposedly “had never even written a letter of complaint in her life” (NY Times). She compared the entire ordeal to “imprisonment” and went on to form an activist group to promote airline customer rights (Flyers Rights.com).

My Thoughts:

While I applaud Ms. Hanni’s pro-activism in the matter, and the fact that she is getting out and fighting for what she believes in, I have to question the perspective of the group. The NY Times article provided statistics that roughly 1200 flights have been delayed for 3+ hours from January-July (2007). There are an average of 28,537 commercial flights per day (2005) which would come to roughly 5,992,700 flights from January-June 2007 (a low estimate, as flights have increased since 2005). From these numbers we can conclude that about 0.02% of all US flights over this period (January-July 2007) have experienced 3+ hour delays.

Again, I don’t want to condemn Ms. Hanni for fighting for what she believes in, but I do wonder if this cause is really worth all the time and effort she and her supporters are putting into it. We all know there are thousands of pressing issues facing humanity both internationally and at home. Global warming, genocide, HIV/AIDS, abysmal human rights practices, and poverty to name a few. It’s also no secret that for pretty much all of human history we have tended to ignore the plights and struggles of others, as well as the long-term threats facing humanity. In general we as humans are more interested in tending to our own short-term affairs than taking on global issues in the name of others or even ourselves.

However, Ms. Hanni and her group are NOT guilty of this affliction to indifference. They are not out in search of personal gain, money, or fame. The NY Times article even states that:

“Ms Hanni, 47, essentially put her life on hold to take on the airlines, leaning on her husband to earn more and spend more time looking after their children so she could battle the lobbying might of the airlines”

This kind of devotion is truly commendable, but in my opinion the cause is not worth a fraction of the effort they are putting into it. I remember hearing it all through school, “fight for what you believe in”. But in today’s world, all activism is not equal. Our neighbors around the globe are dying everyday, environmental degradation has the potential to completely transform the world we live in, however Flyers Rights and so many other organizations like them are working day and night so that the average American doesn’t have to worry about the minute chance they will be stuck on a plane for an extra 3 hours.

I can only hope that SOMEDAY these will be the most pressing concerns facing humanity, but for now I think it’s important to put activism in a global perspective, and encourage tireless champions like Kate Hanni to collaborate their efforts on arguably higher priority initiatives.

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