Letters to the Editor
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Honestly, I think the author is full of sh*t.
I don't know how many people have ever flown overseas, but every airline will double check the status of your passport before boarding. This is, the people at the counter would have warned the Author about the fact that he couldn't get into Britain due to the expiration date of his passport.
As a foreigner living in this country, it is "oh so much fun" to be subjected to any US port of entry, where I have the honor of having my mug shot and finger prints taken, nothing says "welcome home" after a 12hr flight than be treated like some sort of criminal. My wife, a US citizen, has experienced nothing of the short going the opposite way into Europe. But honestly, I could only dream of EU authorities enforcing the same standards on American citizens as the US uses for foreigners entering its borders.
One thing I am fairly familiar with is the fact that one has to try really hard in order to be thrown in jail in the EU, certainly Mr. Kurth must be quite the class act if he pushed things up to that limit.
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Writer and Reader responses telling
What I found almost as horrifying as the prison situation and that Mr. Kurth was thrown into it was my own initial reaction ("Doesn't this guy know better than to be an idiot on an international flight?") and how much of the situation Mr. Kurth "owned" as his responsibility. I am a survivor of rape and torture; I am a straight woman; I have ptsd, and know well how distorted one's thoughts and emotions can be in a triggering situation or when one is under the influence of medication.
The open suggestion by Mr. Kurth that one is "complicit" in rape in any way is simply a testimony to the severity of his trauma. I feel nothing but outrage and compassion for what he went through, and for what any prisoner, no matter how badly he needs to be kept away from society, experiences in prison. I feel nothing but shame for my own thoughts at first that the jackass was arrested because he deserved to be, no matter how much he may have merited being detained in the first place.
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To: Alarajrogers
With all due respect (snicker, smirk) any idiot can locate restrictions in regards to HIV travel restrictions and which countries prohibit or govern entry based upon that. Many countries require that a passport have MORE than 6 months left before expiration to allow entry and travel (again, easily verifiable from many sources). The author was on medication, drunk, demanded special treatment where none was entitled or deserved, conducted himself as I am sure he usually does (an asshole with a big mouth), was combative and just fucking wierd. He did it to himself and got exactly what he deserved. he was lucky he was not beat down. What is it with some gays and some fat people that they expect special treatment? That is ludicrous. They should get a swift kick in the ass.
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Ugly American
So just to sum it up, a drunken, obnoxious, overmedicated man/child throws a tantrum on an international flight and because he lost his laptop and requires special medical considerations (previously unannounced)
Welcome to the adult world.
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We are all interconnected...
by our common humanity, are we not? John Donne might have put it this way if he were a Salon LW, "Any man's rape diminishes me, because I am involved with mankind." But so many of the commenters here would rather point fingers and say, "Peter Furth deserved what he got." The Arrogance Highway runs in both directions. I was taught, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." A little compassion for what the man endured doesn't mean you condone the behavior that got him there. (And please don't tell me about what his fellow passengers were "forced" to endure.)
On another topic, I have sometimes wished the near-constant tunes would stop playing in my head, but upon reading that one sign of the end of Mr. Furth's ordeal was the resumption of tunes playing in his head, I see it all in a new light and am actually thankful for hearing tunes. And the "Alleluia" from Mozart's "Exultate, Jubilate!" For the past two weeks, I had been unable to stop thinking of the insipid theme song from the old television program "Maude," which began suddenly, inexplicably, complete with references to Lady Godiva, Joan of Arc, Isadora Duncan, and Betsy Ross. Now I learn out that Peter Furth's last book was about Isadora Duncan. Don't tell me we aren't interconnected.
All right, nurse, I'm ready to go back to my room now.
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Just doesn't add up
1) I find it difficult if not impossible to believe that he could not contact his British friends who could have kept him out of prison. Even if I accept the fact that Kurth was stuck with the one phone card that did not work (fine), and further accept that no one at the prison or solicitor's office could or would help with that (really? no due process over there, huh?), SOMEHOW the embassy and his mother knew where he was (how, exactly?) and could have helped. Certainly nothing in this excerpt indicates the frustration that most people would feel in that situation.
2) The money for the fine. Are you kidding me? Kurth has the money for multiple international trips (at last minute fares) and he can't scrape up the money? And he can't call any friends or family to wire it to him? And doesn't even try? No way, sorry, uh uh, NO.
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actually Kurth
never says he was raped. He says they took turns. He's very careful to avoid the word rape yet admit he had sex. I think he tried to make them look bad but knew he couldn't say they raped him. And he chose NOT to tell them of his HIV positive status, so someone might die because he didn't feel like warning them, isn't that against the law, to have sex with someone without telling them you're HIV positive? It's sorta like a life sentence, a sentence to die. Thanks, dude.
He was treated fairly in prison by the administration. Got to see his lawyers, embassy officials. Got to smoke, read, teach, watch TV, shower. I don't think his treatment in the jail was so Victorian.
He was physically and verbally threatening on the plane. That is far worse than losing your cool with the idiot clerk at Walmart. He knew he wasn't supposed to mix alcohol with his medications (further exasperbated by flying), but he did so, extensively. 4 Drinks within a few hours is excessive.