In the category of almost "too good to check" comes this story from the Daily Mail, which surely must be a parable for our times.
A 55-year-old California woman, Teri Weissinger, was at the San Francisco airport, for a flight to Idaho where she hopes to start a new life.
Down to her last $30, she didn't have money for the airline's baggage fees ($60), and was told that abandoning her luggage was not an option (security risk, you see). (She had purchased the plane ticket before the rule on disclosing hidden fees took effect.)
A desperate series of calls to family and friends failed to raise the money in time for the flight's departure, and now she was down $210--$60 for the luggage and a $150 change fee for missing her original flight.
What followed was an 8-day ordeal reminiscent of the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal, about a man trapped at JFK airport because of visa problems. The Terminal movie itself was based on the real-life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee, who lived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for 17 years because he had his briefcase stolen and did not have the proper visa to either enter France proper or fly on to another destination.
M. Nasseri finally escaped the airport when an illness forced him into a nearby hospital and he now lives in a Paris shelter.
Ms. Weissinger's story is not nearly as dramatic, as she was always free to leave the airport, with luggage in tow. After 8 days of sleeping at the airport and living on trail mix, she finally received help from a nearby church, the Airport Church of Christ, who raised the $210 to see her off to Idaho.
Self-employed for the past 25 years, she was leaving California to take a new job in Idaho.
San Francisco International Airport is located in San Mateo County, but is owned by the City of San Francisco. Ms. Weissinger thus received no assistance from the most liberal city in the most liberal state in America. You can understand why. As a economic refugee on her way out, she was in no position either to continue in the dependent class, voting in her would-be benefactors in election after election or continue as a producer, funding the progressive state. As she was of no use to them, they provided no help. The Daily Mail reports,
"When she tried to plead with airport authorities for help, Ms Weissinger claimed she was threatened with arrest on vagrancy charges."
Who did come to the rescue? Not any level of government, but a local faith community. And after 8 days in the airport, she boarded a flight on a different airline, who waived the change fee, but not the baggage charge.
Someone needs to update the lyrics to the Al Jolson song, "California Here I Come", as the flow is now the other way.
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