# Airline Pilot Open Letter: Take Sides **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 28, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193 "2006-03-28T02:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jawdirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@jawdirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jawdirk)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/1 "2006-03-28T02:34:31Z")
I received this letter by chain email. I thought we might enjoy debating it point by point. My take on it is that it is a thinly veiled call-to-arms for bigots across America. But I’d like to know if anyone here will stand behind it: > [@](#): > > A Letter From An American Airlines Pilot > This is the same question that many of us have been asking for the past several years…this well spoken man says what is on his heart beautifully…read, absorb and pass on…it’s time to get answers from those who claim their terrorist members do not represent them…why are their leaders not LOUDLY AND FIERCELY AND CONTINUOUSLY condemning their visible murderous brethren. > By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco > > "I’ve been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn’t. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don’t blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can’t help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don’t fully understand their grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks. > > On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers. The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. > > So I notice you now. I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist. > > How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim-Americans and the Arab/Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbors and children? The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me. > > I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? > Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your “Jihads”? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it. > > Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy…I am only interested in action. What will you do for America - our great country – at this time of crisis, at this time of war? > > I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting “Allah Bless America .” I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole. The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities. You know them You know where they are. > > Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals. > > The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing “leaders” like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat. If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true when your “leaders” are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? > > It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the world’s Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam. > > Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show their faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore? Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because we drink wine with dinner, or celebrate Christmas? Do you and you fellow Muslims hate us because we have befriended Israel, the ONLY civilized democratic nation in the entire Middle East? > > And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are you even here? Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our peace and stability? Are you here to destroy us? If so, I want you to leave I want you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and dogs. I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back to your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE! We will NEVER give in to your influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion. We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab/ Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand." “Until then … you worry me” “” > > * * * > > LET’S COVER THE COUNTRY WITH THIS ONE! ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/2 "2006-03-28T03:00:04Z")
This is just racial bigotry and not even thinly veiled. It scares me more that this prick is driving an airplane I might be on more than any muslim I have ever met (assuming it really is a pilot who wrote this). I thought this country learned something about this sort of thing after tossing Japanese descended American citizens into concentration camps in WWII. Note we didn’t toss German descended or Italian descended Americans in there. The ethnic Japanese were just conveniently easy to spot. I guess it is the Arab/Muslim’s turn now. TBH…our own, homegrown brand of christian religious extremists worry me more than any Mullah in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/3 "2006-03-28T03:06:48Z")
> [@jawdirk's E-mail](#): > > This is the same question that many of us have been asking for the past several years…this well spoken man says what is on his heart beautifully…read, absorb and pass on…it’s time to get answers from those who claim their terrorist members do not represent them…why are their leaders not LOUDLY AND FIERCELY AND CONTINUOUSLY condemning their visible murderous brethren. Well, maybe it’s because they don’t consider the terrorists “bretheren.” I don’t think wvery Christian felt an affinity with Timothy McVeigh and thus a need to loudly denounce them. I guess they assumed people would have more sense than to figure that sharing one thing in common with a terrorist made you “bretheren.” > [@](#): > > On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers. The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. My husband works in a prison. He told me when he came home on the evening of September 11th that some of the inmates cheered, clapped and laughed at the footage of the WTC. Were they Muslim? No-- they were just assholes. > [@](#): > > So I notice you now. I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist. “Gee, all you people look alike. So I guess I’d be better off declaring you guilty until proven innocent.” > [@](#): > > I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? > Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your “Jihads”? I answered “no” to all of the above questions. Nor do I think any of those activities truly designate patriotism. > [@](#): > > Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America? Sure, I love America. I don’t love THIS guy’s version of it, though-- the kind where patriotism seems to mean buying a $1.99 sticker at Wal-Mart. I’m proud of the America which opens its arms to all faiths, creeds and colors, and of the people who gave their lives so we could live _free,_ not huddled beneath a flag in xenophobic paranoia. > [@](#): > > If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it. I would like to take ahold of the guy who wrote this dreck and say, “No, asshole, YOU prove it. Prove it by eschewing racism.” > [@](#): > > Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America. Hmm. I seem to recall them doing just that, but I admit I don’t watch FOX News. > [@](#): > > I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting “Allah Bless America .” Saw it. > [@](#): > > I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. Saw that, too. Funny how that works. I’d like to ask the guy who wrote this e-mail if he’s aware of the WWII internment camps for Japanese people, and if he’s aware of the fact that a significant number of sons of the people in those camps went and fought for the country unjustly detaining their families? Amazing-- you can treat good people like shit, and they’ll still do good stuff. > [@](#): > > I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole. The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities. You know them You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! You know, they used to have this practice in the early-to-mid1900s. If a white woman accused a black man of rape, they’d just round up all the black men and beat or lynch them. Yep, all them a-rabs know each other. > [@](#): > > But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals. Christ on the crapper, who can blame them for that? If I were faced with similar threats and discrimination, you’re damn tootin’ I’d hire security, and sue the living shit out of anyone who harmed me simply because of my faith. > [@](#): > > Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show their faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore? No, usually they don’t care. What worries them are “advocates” who go to their homes and try to convince their women that they’re oppressed. > [@](#): > > And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are you even here? Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our peace and stability? Are you here to destroy us? I guess this guy never heard of the American Dream, or doesn’t think it applies to anyone who doesn’t pray the same way he does. > [@](#): > > If so, I want you to leave I want you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and dogs. Yeah, every Muslim man is a brute with an abused wife, and the kids all have bombs strapped to them. > [@](#): > > I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back to your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE! We will NEVER give in to your influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion. We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab/ Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. I must have missed that part in the Constitution. > [@](#): > > A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand." “Until then … you worry me” “” I don’t know about ya’ll but the writer of this e-mail worries _me_. What’s particularly saddening is that others are sending this on, nodding their heads in agreement. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/4 "2006-03-28T03:14:00Z")
Uh… so you help the cause by propogating it _here_? 😉 It’s just some 56 year-old idiot sitting in his underwear banging out some silly internet missive and sending it to all 22 of his “friends” on his AOL Buddy List: RightWingNuts. Because the internet is the perfect host for any viral contagion, this one somehow got through to you. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/5 "2006-03-28T03:21:12Z")
> [@](#): > > My take on it is that it is a thinly veiled call-to-arms for bigots across America. Sounds about right to me. I must be one of the lucky ones…I only get anti-Bush rants from my ‘friends’. 😉 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/6 "2006-03-28T03:39:18Z")
Although scopes branded it “[undetermined](http://www.snopes.com/rumors/worryme.htm)” I’ll go out on a limb and declare shenanigans on the letter. It reads like the typical bogus letter that gets bounced around the planet for years on-end. It sounds even nuttier coming from an airline pilot. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/7 "2006-03-28T03:41:54Z")
Sheesh, I know for a fact that there are many Muslim Americans serving in the military. They usually don’t care to state their affiliation, but that doesn’t change that they’re there and serving. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/8 "2006-03-28T03:46:46Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Sheesh, I know for a fact that there are many Muslim Americans serving in the military. They usually don’t care to state their affiliation, but that doesn’t change that they’re there and serving. I didn’t really think this was seriously in question. Hell, even bigots should know it…there have been muslims in the military (various branches) in the news several times that I recall. -XT ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/9 "2006-03-28T03:48:43Z")
Unfortunatley, bigots can ignore anything they want to, unless you grab them by the neck and rub their noses in it. Usually for several hours. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/10 "2006-03-28T03:51:21Z")
Naw, all you have to do is marry their daughters (_inside joke_). 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/11 "2006-03-28T04:24:25Z")
What’s to verify? The letter should stand or fall on it’s own. Who cares whether it’s an airline pilot or a janitor? Everyone should denounce terrorism. I don’t care if you’re the same ethnic group or religion or whatever as the terrorists. But demanding that certain individuals overexpress that denunciation is just bigotry. There are quite a few Muslims living in the SF bay area. I don’t feel any more danger around them then I do around other group. They may not be out every day denouncing the terrorists, but I don’t see them supporting them, either. That’s all that matters to me. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/12 "2006-03-28T14:14:59Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Well, maybe it’s because they don’t consider the terrorists “bretheren.” I don’t think wvery Christian felt an affinity with Timothy McVeigh and thus a need to loudly denounce them. Why would we feel affinity with a non-Christian? McVeigh was an agnostic. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/13 "2006-03-28T14:47:04Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Well, maybe it’s because they don’t consider the terrorists “bretheren.” I don’t think every Christian felt an affinity with Timothy McVeigh and thus a need to loudly denounce them. I guess they assumed people would have more sense than to figure that sharing one thing in common with a terrorist made you “bretheren.” A more apt anology for christian extremeism and terrorism might be [here](http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_viol.htm). You will find plenty of people who even if they would not ever bomb a clinic themselves that would cheer at the thought of one burning to the ground, or people being scared to go to one because of violent events taking place there. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/14 "2006-03-28T15:49:31Z")
Why doesn’t the writer tell truthfully who he is? He’s not an American Airlines pilot, and versions of the letter began in 2001 (Snopes). I’ll dismiss it as bigoted propoganda, with a false air of authority. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/15 "2006-03-28T17:13:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Why would we feel affinity with a non-Christian? McVeigh was an agnostic. Source? [Wikipedia: Timothy McVeigh:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh) > [@](#): > > McVeigh was born in Western New York State in Pendleton (near Buffalo) to an Irish-American Catholic family. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old. McVeigh and his siblings lived with their father, a devout Catholic who often attended Daily Mass. Timothy McVeigh’s religious beliefs seem to have been shaken somewhat, but not lost entirely, as he was visited by a chaplain while he was in federal prison in Indiana, and never renounced his faith. > [@](#): > > McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a prequiem (a Mass for those who are about to die) on the eve of his execution, and he had also requested a Catholic chaplain. [TIME Magazine interview with Timothy McVeigh](http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,109478,00.html): > [@](#): > > TIME: Are you religious? > > MCVEIGH: I was raised Catholic. I was confirmed Catholic (received the sacrament of confirmation). Through my military years, I sort of lost touch with the religion. I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs. > > TIME: Do you believe in God? > > MCVEIGH: I do believe in a God, yes. But that’s as far as I want to discuss. If I get too detailed on some things that are personal like that, it gives people an easier way alienate themselves from me and that’s all they are looking for now. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/16 "2006-03-28T17:55:47Z")
[McVeigh described himself as an agnostic in a letter shortly before his death.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/mcveigh/story/0,7369,504876,00.html) He did receive the last rites [before his death.](http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/06/11/mcveigh.03/index.html) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/17 "2006-03-28T18:08:14Z")
Whoever wrote that is a racist, a religious bigot, and an asshole. He should therefore, by his own standards, be publicly condemning every bad thing that’s ever been done by racists, religious bigots, and assholes. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-pilot-open-letter-take-sides/350193/18 "2006-03-28T18:43:21Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > Whoever wrote that is a racist, a religious bigot, and an asshole. He should therefore, by his own standards, be publicly condemning every bad thing that’s ever been done by racists, religious bigots, and assholes. Some of my best friends are… oh. forget it.