Please Return Your Face to its Original Position
February 19th, 2010In Your Own Row
Let me make myself even less popular among conservatives by announcing that I side with Mitt Romney’s “attacker” in the runway seat-back incident.
When I pay for an airline seat, I pay for space, and that includes the space it takes to recline my seat. If you’re behind me, you may think that space belongs to you, but it doesn’t. So when I recline in order to prevent myself from having back spasms later, you have nothing to say about it. If you’re claustrophobic, or if you’re fat, or if you just don’t like people who recline their seats, you should have flown first class instead of expecting me to screw up my back and fly in pain so you could get first-class comfort for a coach price. You don’t let your fat spill over the armrest onto me. You don’t put your stuff under the seat in front of me. You don’t tell me to turn off my reading light or the air nozzle. If you want to control your row, buy it.
Touching another person without permission is battery. This is what Mitt Romney did, if he put his hands on the guy in the reclined seat. Romney’s spokesperson appears to have omitted this detail, but the other guy’s story is completely credible. Romney’s version–that he merely spoke to the man, who then threw a fist at him–sounds absurd. I don’t buy it.
Battery is a tort, and it’s also a crime. You don’t put your hands on other people in a civilized society, unless they give you the legal right to do so. That brings me to the third issue.
When the rapper in the reclined seat smacked Romney’s hand, he did not commit a battery. He had the legal right to slap Romney away. In fact, I think he would have been justified in punching Romney in the mouth. Romney waived his right to refuse to be touched, if he battered the other passenger.
On top of all this, reports say Romney was rude at the outset of the encounter, ordering the other passenger to move his seat to an upright position. Former Governor of Massachusetts is not the same thing as Governor of the Coach Seating Area. When you want people to do you favors, which describes Romney’s situation, you ask. You don’t demand.
People have noted that the plane was on the runway, and there seems to be a notion out there that this made reclining the seat some kind of felony. I’ve traveled by air, and I’ve noticed something. They don’t order you to straighten your seat back until it’s time to take off. Until then, you can do what you want. Regardless, Mitt Romney isn’t in charge of airline seat backs, and it’s not his place to enforce FAA policy.
I’d love it if people sitting in front of me didn’t recline their seats. But they have the right to recline. They can do anything they want with the space they paid for. I respect their right, and I keep my mouth shut, and I recline my own seat as much as I need to in order to be comfortable.
Romney is supposedly worth tens of millions of dollars, and he’s not young. He doesn’t have fifty years of flying in front of him. Maybe the wise thing is to live a little and buy better seats. To him, the price of a first class seat is like the cost of a Whopper for the rest of us, and he doesn’t have enough flights left in him to make it a major expense over the remainder of his life. If it runs him an extra hundred thousand a year, he’ll never miss it. Incidents like this are the reason many wealthy public figures always fly first class. It’s not a luxury. It’s the cost of doing business.
If you’re ever in an airline seat in front of me, recline all you want. It’s your right.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Pretty harsh, Steve.
My wife has had an injury to her spine that make it painful to recline her seat. We of course can’t afford first class. So I guess she would have to suck it up so you remain comfortable. Is that doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Just asking.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:53 PM
How does it affect your wife’s back if the person in front of her gets comfortable? It’s impossible. I don’t think you understood what I wrote.
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As for doing unto others, I would not show up on an airplane and force someone else to risk back spasms so I could have three more inches of space in front of me. In fact, many times, I’ve ended up with seats that didn’t recline at all, and the people in front of me have reclined, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. Somehow I lived.
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I think I’m going to start a policy of dumping comments that question my Christianity. They’re nasty and uncalled for.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:32 PM
Interesting forum quotation from a JetBlue rep:
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“Dear Mr. n,
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Thank you for contacting us regarding JetBlue’s reclining seat space. We appreciate the opportunity to address your question. JetBlue does not have set guidelines on who ‘owns’ the recline space.
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The answer to this question would be the option of the person who is answering it. I did not want to just give you my own thoughts so I asked a number of JetBlue crewmembers for their opinion .
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The crewmembers I asked agreed that passenger A has the right to recline the seat to make himself more comfortable; therefore passenger A ‘owns’ the recline space an here is why: Our inflight seats are made to recline to make our customers as comfortable as possible. The customer sitting in the seat has control over the seat and may recline it at any time. We hope our customers will respect the needs and comfort of other customers onboard.”
February 19th, 2010 at 6:52 PM
I have gotten on flights totally exhausted, buckled my belt, inserted the ear-plugs, grab the pillow and blanket and as soon as the nose lifts
off, my seat reclined, went to sleep and slept the entire flight.
Even slept through the pre-landing announcement of ‘Tray tables stowed & seat-backs up and locked.’ (My business required travel ..this happened more than once.)
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It was necessary for someone to help me de-fog by shaking, touching or some way getting me awake in order to comply with the Flight Attendant’s instructions, usually it was the F/A ,or it was okay if it was my seat-mate or who ever…I didn’t care.. how were they to know that I wasn’t on medication and needed assistance.
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I have two herniated discs, a rolled up blanket or small pillow to serve as a lumbar support, in addition to the seat back in the reclined position helps my back tolerate the trip. I completely agree with you …
I have bought the seat, it belongs to me for the duration of the trip.
If you are too fat to contain your beef with-in the confines of your seat, why should I have to share my seat with your fat,there is hardly enough width and pitch to for me.
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The FAA requires the seat-backs be in the up-right position on the ground for the purpose of emergency evacuation…it provides easy egress for those at the window seats.
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As far as First Class is concerned, not all aircraft have two class seating, example :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_ERJ_145_family
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This and other fuel efficient, cost saving aircraft are widely used by airlines today, especially in the highly competitive cheap-seat market place.
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An additional $50-$75 for a F/C seat would be nothing to a multi-millionaire… Actually I can’t understand why Romney is traveling commercial. Bet that will be the last time.
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February 19th, 2010 at 6:56 PM
Here’s another great question for the anti-recliners: if you know you need room in front of you, why aren’t you calling ahead and asking the airline to help, instead of waiting to for some poor stranger to stick with your problem? And if you’re flying with another person, why isn’t that person volunteering to sit in front of you in misery, instead of forcing a stranger to suffer and possibly injure himself?
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Sitting in a seat that isn’t reclined is fine for small people and pear-shaped men, but I wear a 46 jacket and a 7 1/2 hat, so all my weight is high, and that means I have to exert my back muscles to stay upright. After the first half-hour, it stops being fun.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:12 PM
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Steve. When I pay for an airline seat, I’m paying for the use of all “amenities” that come with that seat-space: reclining it as far back as the mechanism will allow, use of the light/vent/window if available, not to have the person next to me “flow” over the seat rest, etc. If you don’t want the seat in front of you reclined, then buy a ticket for it too and then you can control it.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:07 PM
Wow, flying can make people mad who still be on the ground!
I’ve flown well in excess of 4M miles and, unfortunately, most of it in coach. Starting around 8 years ago I always started turning around and asking the person behind me if they were “clear” before I reclined.
I also started asking, very nicely, the person in front of me to warn me, please, before reclining so I could move my knees.
99.9% polite responses from both sides.
Seriously, people, contribute some peace to the metal sheep tube, m’kay?
-XC
February 19th, 2010 at 9:55 PM
I was under the impression that the passenger had reclined the seat when it was supposed to be in the “upright position.” In which case I have to side with Mitt. But if I’m wrong, then the passenger has the right to recline.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:05 AM
“I was under the impression that the passenger had reclined the seat when it was supposed to be in the ‘upright position.'”
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That may be true, but who put Romney in charge of enforcing the law, and who told him it was okay to batter another person in order to do it? I assume he didn’t go through the airport garage writing parking tickets, and I’m pretty sure the TSA people don’t let him search bags.
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“Seriously, people, contribute some peace to the metal sheep tube, m’kay?”
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I’ll forward this advice to Mitt Romney.
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I’ve never asked anyone to move their seat back, unless I needed to get out of my seat. To me, Romney’s actions are like renting a hotel room and asking the people next door not to shower, so you can have all the hot water.
February 20th, 2010 at 11:11 AM
Personally,I smell a rat :
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I remember the incident when Joel Osteen and his wife boarded a Continental Flight in Houston . They were seated in F/C and was accused by a F/A of behavior that was beyond belief by any normal well mannered adult, much less the leader of one of the largest churches in America , Lakewood Church, Houston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Osteen
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The Flight Attendant sued the Osteen family.
The case went to trial and the F/A lost . I believe the F/A saw a potential opportunity to retire and live happily ever after and grossly miscalculated her chances, but you are free to sue a ham sandwich and with a sympathetic jury win.
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Insight : the cabin crew is presented a manifest of who’s on board and their assigned seat, so the F/A had no doubt about who she was interacting with.
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The Rappers in question have posted a YouTube video and in it implies they were not aware of who Romney was.
I don’t buy that, when a celebrity boards, even if your are not aware of the person in question, there is a buzz that’s present from the other passengers and you are quickly made aware.
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I also believe the Rapper’s seat back was up when Romney and his wife boarded ( it would be difficult to get to the window seat with the isle seat reclined), and was indeed looking to make a scene.
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The fine points regarding this case, of who and what and when can be discussed, but without reading the reports of people present, including other passengers, all we know is what is said in print.
The Captain made the decision to have the Rapper removed from the flight, I’m inclined to trust his judgment because his career would be in jeopardy if he made a wrong one.
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There is no way the fly poop can be picked out of the black pepper from this distance, but there’s something here it that just doesn’t pass the smell test. Especially considering the YouTube video.
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February 21st, 2010 at 2:50 AM
What’s your position on a fidgety kid in front of your seat reclining and un-reclining about 4 times a minute?
February 21st, 2010 at 5:01 PM
H2K February 19th, 2010 – 10:17 am
“Wow, it’s tough to make a choice here on who I believe. On the one hand, you have a businessman and political leader with decades of experience and a very measured personality,He’s Mormon and has 5 children – none of whom have been in jail. On the other hand, you have a member of an “electro hop” group that has the f*** word as part of their name/acronym.
Gee, that’s a tough one.”
Consider the source? Posted on Breitbart.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:13 PM
I have no idea what H2K is, but he or she or it really blew it here.
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I did consider the sources. H2K can’t even identify them correctly.
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Source 1: a pudgy, baby-faced, non-gangster rapper who appears to be very easy-going, and who has no incentive to say he was a good boy. If anything, he has incentive to come off like a thug.
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Source 2: a HIRED SHILL who works for Romney, whose bread and butter depends on spinning the story in a way that makes Romney look good. I have no idea what H2K read, but I’ve never seen an account related by Romney, and I doubt H2K has either.
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We use the phrase “spin doctor” in a snide way, like “shyster” or “quack,” but the guy who told Romney’s story IS a spin doctor. It’s what he does for a living. He could literally list it as his occupation on a 1040. And this H person believed him? I think somebody just fell off the turnip truck. Maybe I can sell them some magic beans.
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As for Romney himself…hello? POLITICIAN. Did I just wake up on a planet where rappers are considered dishonest and politicians aren’t? Rappers are considered violent and crazy, but they don’t have a reputation for lying. Politicians…do I have to explain?
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When did Mormonism become equivalent with honesty? How are they even related? Has H2K heard of Harry Reid? How about Joseph Smith, a psychopathic, proven liar and arguably the most successful con artist in history?
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As for Breitbart being a positive reference, I’d rather not go there.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Witness for Defense: random rapper. Witness for Prosecution: sibling of Robert Gibbs.
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I love it!
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:21 AM
As a mondo-miles frequent flier, I’ve had to deal with all types. I agree completely that the seat reclines for a reason. On an eleven-hour transatlantic flight. if you can’t recline, you are putting all sorts of weight at an odd angle on your neck vertebrae, and it gets painful quick.
That said, I agree with Cliff that there’s a certain “etiquette” to reclining your seat, kind of like backing up in a car. Look first. I had one guy punch his back like he was in hurry to get to sleep. Knocked my soda over on the tray table. I was tad peeved.
I quick peek to make sure the folk behind your aren’t leaned over a crossword or something, and then at gradual recline to let ’em know you’re coming.
Past that, having a seatback in your lap is just the price you pay for flying commercial.