"Rejoice Dear Hearts"
Page 5
Mr. Cavanaugh, while we cannot erase your poor impression, as a additional gesture of concern for the late arrival to your destination, I have issued you and your wife each an Electronic Transportation Credit Voucher (eTCV) in the amount of $150.00. Please note the voucher numbers and associated Terms and Conditions will be arriving in a separate email within 24 hours. I encourage you to add Delta Air Lines to your receiver list so the voucher documents are not misdirected to your spam folder.
Please keep the voucher numbers and the Terms and Conditions since the numbers are required for redemption. It is also important to mention that there is no Direct Ticketing fee for reservations confirmed online at delta.com. Further, I have also received additional correspondence from other passengers. Therefore, I will be responding to Mr. Ueland’s and Mr. Dumbeck’s concerns directly. Again, we are very sorry if there was a discrepancy at the boarding gate in Fresno on May 25. Your business is valued and we hope to serve your future air travel needs.
Sincerely, Michele Schrader Coordinator,
Delta Air Lines
June 18, 2013
Michele Schrader
Delta Airlines
Madam:
There is no “confusion as to the time the door was closed” on the part of anyone involved except, I must conclude, those whose inexcusable negligence, abuse of authority and cavalier behavior now add blatant dishonesty to their own untrue accounting.
And there was not a problem “hearing” any announcements before, during and at a point of “last call.” THERE WERE NO ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE. PERIOD.
I must suggest this sad incident clearly now requires accentuated executive review.
With ever mounting frustration,
Peter Cavanaugh
June 20, 2013
Dear Mr. Cavanaugh, RE: Case Number 9102172
Thank you for your most recent message. We apologize for any misunderstanding. The confusion and discrepancy with the time the door closed is on our part.
Unfortunately, it seems the computer time shows the entries for your seating, the standby clearance and other seat discrepancies almost an hour after your flight departed. I apologize for any errors with our system and the gate agents handling of the flight departure.
My explanation only intended to advise you of the reasoning behind my earlier comments and not as a excuse. I truly regret you felt this was cavalier behavior or dishonesty. Further, while we understand your frustration, there were boarding announcements in the gate area.
Respectfully, this flight departed the gate with 43 passengers onboard at 6:24. It would be impossible to board and dispatch a flight without any announcements or contact with the passengers. However, it seems the messages were not broadcast throughout the terminal or security area. According, we are sorry that the announcements were not heard in the rest of the terminal or security area. This concern has been forwarded to our Airport Customer Service Leadership team for internal review. Again, I would like to emphasize that we are extremely sorry for the situation that you experienced, and that our position on the matter has had such an impact. We have tried to apologize in the sincerest manner possible with assurances of internal follow-up in the areas of service which you identified.
I am sorry for your continued disappointment. Mr. Cavanaugh, we regret the disruption to your travel. I hope in time you will provide us with another opportunity to restore your confidence.
Sincerely, Michele Schrader
Delta Air Lines
June 20, 2013
Michele Schrader
Delta Air Lines
“It would be impossible to board and dispatch a flight without any announcements or contact with the passengers. However, it seems the messages were not broadcast throughout the terminal or security area. According, we are sorry that the announcements were not heard in the rest of the terminal or security area.”
Again, Ms. Schrader, I am ever more disappointed with your escalating defense of this inexcusable incident.
It is certainly possible to “board and dispatch a flight without any announcements” since THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT TOOK PLACE.
My “dishonesty” reference was to those providing you with altered information.
You were not there.
I and five others ready to testify were.
And will.
Peter Cavanaugh
June 20th, 2013
Subject: Delta Customer Care –
Tell Us How We Did
Dear Peter,
It was our pleasure assisting you with your Delta Customer Care request. Our goal is to deliver the very best service possible, so your feedback is important in helping us recognize and improve our quality. Please let us know how I did by completing a brief survey via the following link:
https://delta-acs.com/survey/pch.php?id=734&batch=1161&e=hltv12
Thank you for your participation and for your business,
Michele |
Delta Customer Care
*******THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED EMAIL. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE*******
June 23, 2013
Dear Mr. Cavanaugh
RE: Case Number 9276860
Thank you for taking the time to write. On behalf of Delta Air Lines, Air France, and KLM we appreciate the opportunity to review your comments. We assure you we will reply within 30 days. Please know we strive to meet a goal of responding within 7 days, however, due to the complexity of some correspondence, we may need additional time to respond and appreciate your patience. If you need assistance with a current reservation, please contact Reservations directly at 1-800-221-1212 or visit delta.com for our international reservation offices. They will be happy to assist you. Sincerely, Customer Care
June 24, 2013
Dear Mr. Cavanaugh,
RE: Case Number 9102172
Thank you for your email dated June 20.
I understand your continued disappointment. Respectfully, as you have indicated, you were not at the gate when Flight 4624 was boarded. Our records indicate that 43 passengers were onboard when the flight was dispatched. We understand you feel that our agents did not make any announcements in the gate area and the passengers boarded with our instructions from our personnel. After additional consideration, I regret we have been unable to resolve this matter to your satisfaction.
Again, thank you for writing.
It is my hope we can put this matter in the past
. On behalf of Delta Air Lines, I apologize we were unable to fully resolve your concern.
Sincerely, Michele Schrader
Delta Air Lines.
June 25, 2013
“It is my hope we can put this matter in
the past. “
No, Michelle.
We’re now moving this into your future.
Peter Cavanaugh
https://petercavanaugh.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/delta-yawn/
Chapter Seventeen – “Lenny and The Lottery”
It has been judged a “chilling tale of conformity gone mad.”
“The Lottery” was first published by The New Yorker magazine in June of 1948 and is today regarded as one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature — dazzlingly brilliant in its relentless darkness.
In an annual rite of spring, a rural community chooses — by random drawing — a sacrificial victim, who is then stoned to death by one and all to insure a bountiful harvest.
Written by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” is a study in collective mentality, an evolutionary adaptation that provides a mechanism for common consensus, but also offers an ever present possibility of group sanctioned, morally reprehensible behavior.
An extreme example in modern times is easily witnessed by brief reflection at the ultimate horrors unleashed under Hitler’s Third Reich.
Discernable resonance might be cited in mindless generational adherence to traditionally cherished, but demonstrably antiquated notions such as belief in an utterly flat world fr
om which we might sail straight off the edge without due caution. It’s been far less than a thousand years since our relatively ancient species set that matter straight.
An even milder, but similarly concerning development in recent days has been the stunning cultural castigation of Paula Deen, a stoning I feel is both unwarranted and unfair.
66 year-old Paula Deen is an American celebrity chef and Emmy Award winning television personality with whom I had been completely unfamiliar until she admitted using the “N-Word” during questioning in a legal deposition and now the you-know-what has hit the you-know-where. Mind you, Ms. Deen didn’t use the “N-Word” on her TV show or in her cookbooks or yell it at someone in public, especially at an “N”. She merely admitted that she had allowed that word to pass her lips at some point in life. Her exact testimony under oath was, “Yes, of course. But that’s just not a word that we use. I don’t — I don’t know. As time has gone on things have changed since the 60′s in the south.”
Since this display of sincere candor exploded on the front page of the National Enquirer last month, Paula Deen has been brutally ostracized by the American press — her integrity bashed, her endorsements crashed, her reputation thoroughly trashed.
She has been effectively fired by The Food Network, Walmart, Target, QVC, Home Depot, J.C.Penney, Sears, K-Mart and Ballantine Books in an outrageous example of wimpy, smarmy, patronizing, knee-jerk, lemming-like response to potential accusations of marginally offensive racial insensitivity or something vaguely akin.
What’s wrong with us?
I find myself in complete agreement with former President Jimmy Carter who courageously states, “I think Paula Deen has been punished, perhaps overly severely, for her honesty in admitting the use of the word in the distant past. She’s apologized profusely and should be forgiven.”
I’ll go one step further. I think we should all use the “N-Word” as often and as loud as we can till it’s all worn out and we can throw it away forever.
Here’s Dusty Hoffman quoting Lenny Bruce as directed by Bob Fosse back in ‘72:
“l’ll pass with seven niggers, six spics, five Micks, four kikes,
three guineas and one Wop. You almost punched me out, didn’t ya?”
“l was trying to make a point — that it’s the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.”
Lenny Bruce was a high wire act. A gentle genius.
When Michael Richards of “Seinfeld” fame tried to use Bruce’s classic monologue on the ” N-Word” in 2010, he failed miserably. It’s one of those stream-of-consciousness ramblings one has to repeat perfectly, word for word, beat for beat, or not try at all. Richards is not a real racist – just a poor performer. He tried some Lenny lines, blew his balance and killed his career in less than two minutes’ time.
“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you” (Traditional Children’s Chant) (Timeless)
One more thing about Lenny Bruce:
“Dirty Lenny died so we could all be free”
Steve Earle — FCC Song (2005)
Niggerly yours,
Peter “The Mick” Cavanaugh
Chapter Eighteen – “You Never Can Tell!”
“It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well.
You could see that Pierre did truly love the Madamoiselle.”
“You Never Can Tell” — Chuck Berry — (1963)
You_Never_Can_Tell
You can’t buy it where they make it.
Lynchburg, Tennessee is the home of Jack Daniels, distilling fine bourbon whiskey by the billions of barrels, but it’s in Moore County. That’s been dry since way before Prohibition.
A bit north of Lynchburg is Cookeville, about 80 miles east of Nashville, where our oldest granddaughter, Katherine, was married on Saturday to a handsome young Second Lieutenant named Patrick. He’ll be heading off to Flight School in just a few weeks
I’ve known Katherine for almost 21 years, holding her in my arms that first day she was born on December 20, 1992. She was baptized in a fine Irish Christening gown Eileen and I brought from Killarney a short time before for just such purpose. In the years that followed as she began to ever so magically enter early childhood, the enchanted “Riverdance” unexpectedly exploded from a Dublin stage into the global phenomenon it became, reviving traditional Irish music and dance from modern cultural obscurity to unparalleled prominence – lifting both to world renown.
Following my presentation suggestions with proper precision, Katherine would patiently hide behind the living room couch biding her time as I would elaborately initiate her introduction in my announcer voice to an imagined audience bubbling with anticipation. As opening strains of “The Countess Cathleen” filled the room with fiddles and flutes, I would continue my recitation of exaggerated hyperbole until a specifically selected instant, at which point two year-old Katherine would leap into sight with electrified launch and River Dance in joyous abandon exactly as did Jean Butler in the original production.
I was most honored when Katherine called several weeks ago and asked if I might assist her in preparing music for both her wedding ceremony and the reception to follow. And so it was that extra tears flowed when she appeared in dazzling view, hitting that exact cue once again – but this time slowly and gently gliding down the aisle like the most graceful of beautiful swans accompanied by her wonderful father, Paul.
Katherine and Patrick had scripted everything out with acute attention to every tiny detail. “Riverdance” selections with ten edited tunes from George Clooney’s highly eclectic “O Brother Where Art Thou?” was surely creatively brilliant and was accompanied by outstanding visual elements, further elaboration upon which must await some future time. Suffice it to observe that “Blue Grass” music directly evolved from its native Scotch – Irish origins in the hills and valleys of early Appalachian settlement. I’m quite proud that Katherine knew this and figured out a way to combine both in theme and execution.
Shifting mood, her Reception following lunch started with Chuck Berry’s early Rock & Roll classic, “You Never Can Tell,” then rocked right along – virtually offering every form of contemporary tunes right up through today.
At the entrance to the Cookeville Town Center, wedding guests were confronted with a large, down-home, hand-lettered sign which simply read, “Today two families become one, so pick a seat – not a side.”
That immediately brought to mind my colleague, Alan Cheah’s “For Your Consideration” column from last week ‘s Sierra Star, which I had just read before leaving the hotel.
As mentioned previously, we have never found need to read each other’s words until actually published, an excellent approach which has proven most viable in our collaborative effort – great minds thinking alike.
Alan’s basic theme was that, despite basic differences in fundamental political persuasion, there is every reason to discover common ground in oppositional positions wherever found and act collectively toward better times in mutual best interest. I herein echo those sentiments.
It just might work.
Whenever we can, let’s agree to agree.
You never can tell.
Chapter Nineteen – “Sharing and Caring”
The House and Senate have adjourned for their hardly earned annual five-week summer break, so it’s business as usual these lazy, crazy days of August in Washington with nothing of meaningful significance happening in the halls of Congress.
One of the last things passed in the House last Friday was a record 40th anti-ObamaCare vote (232 to 185) on a measure introduced by Tom Price (R-Georgia) charmingly entitled, “The Keep The IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013”– doomed to failure from the outset with a Democratic President and Senate fortunately in place. Price, a national Tea Party hero, has gone on record time and time again condemning “The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010″ as a “government takeover of health care”, a
characterization as patently false as it is insipidly stupid. However, this qualifies Price to be often mentioned as a possible new House Speaker if John Boehner doesn’t talk the talk and walk the walk, trembling at every turn lest he upset Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy and other beneficiaries of rich, self-interested, ever wealthier campaign donors, the infamous Koch brothers coming quickest to mind.
After 24 years in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has become a multimillionaire — and not just for good looks. Dedicated to Barack Obama’s political destruction since the day our President took office, McConnell ironically now faces primary competition for his Senate seat in 2014 from even more conservative candidates pledged to out-hate Mitch at the drop of a hood.
As with their previous 39 attempts to undermine the expressed will of the American people, our uptight Right continues wasting time and talent in petulant pursuit of party purity. We can look for more of the same just down the road unless responsible GOP traditionalists can wrestle party control away from its wistfully wayward John Galt wannabes — dedicated do-nothings with dreams of an Ayn Randian inspired Utopia dancing through their heads like sugar plums on Christmas Eve.
For the uninitiated, John Galt is the iconoclastic hero of “Atlas Shrugged” — a long-winded, bombastic 1957 work of political fiction from Alisa Rosenbaum writing under the pseudonym “Ayn Rand.”
Alisa was a Russian-born atheist heavily influenced in her early years by William Edward Hickman, an American serial killer. The hero of Rosenbaum’s novel “The Fountainhead”, Howard Roark, is said to be based on Hickman and is admiringly described in the book with these words — “He was born without the ability to consider others.” Hickman was hanged from the gallows at San Quentin on October 19, 1928 for the gruesome kidnapping, killing and dismemberment of 12 year-old Marion Parker. Justice Clarence Thomas has described “The Fountainhead” as his “favorite book.”