Mary Purcell was scared, and who wouldn't be? Her family was getting on a plane to New York on the night before 9/11. My stomach would be a wee bit knotty too. But I'd probably find a good book to distract me. Maybe a glass of wine? You know what I wouldn't do? Call in a bomb threat to the airline.
So I guess Mary Purcell and I aren't all that alike after all. The Long Island woman is in a heap of trouble with all sorts of federal agencies at the moment because she let herself get carried away and allegedly called in fake threats to Southwest planes flying out of Tucson International Airport. Oh, and get this.
She didn't just do it once (you know, allegedly).
She called them TWICE. And she implicated her boyfriend and his buddies as the would-be bombers! Guess who's not getting a ring under the tree for Christmaaaaaaas!
Poor Mary. I mean, she did something completely loony and misguided, not to mention scary and illegal. But she did it for the best of reasons, didn't she? She didn't want her mom and brother to be taken down by some jerk terrorists who were trying to re-create the worst tragedy in our nation's history.
That's the kind of thing that, sadly, I understand. I remember the first time my parents got on a plane post-9/11. It was late September 2001. I was terrified. And I do mean pile of nerves, totally frantic, checking the Internet every five seconds kind of terrified.
Needless to say they were fine (fortunately), and have been on each successive flight. I've even braved several flights myself since then. And I'd never dream of doing something as ... well, I'll just come straight out and say it, totally STUPID as what Purcell is accused of doing. I appreciate our legal system and the psyches of those poor passengers who were subjected to the terror of thinking their flight "might" be the one carrying a bomb.
Buuuuuuut. That part of me with the knotty stomach that needs a book and wine when her parents get on a flight? That part of me almost, kind of, sort of gets it. If you have to call in a bomb threat, this might be the best reason ever.
What do you think? Do you have any sympathy for Mary Purcell?
Image via Silenus81/Flickr