Six months ago, I told my father I wanted to buy him a business class ticket. He refused. He said he'd buy his own ticket. Said he'd saved his whole life to provide for his family. He wanted this one thing for himself.
Instead, I watched a member of this airline's crew verbally abuse him, physically assault him, accuse him of theft, of lying, of not belonging. I watched her destroy his ticket, kick his belongings, mock his dead wife, and then strike him in the face hard enough to draw blood.
Some of you are wondering why I didn't intervene. Why did I let it happen? Because I needed to see it, all of it. I needed to watch the system expose itself. I needed to see how far it would go.