Dr. Pamela Gaudry, a Georgia physician, planned to honor a fallen soldier by singing the U.S. national anthem aboard a Delta Air Lines plane carrying the soldier’s casket.
Gaudry, along with several other passengers, wanted to sing the anthem while an honor guard escorted the casket off the plane.
But when the passengers started to sing, they were quickly silenced by a flight attendant who told them to stay quiet in their seats.
“THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT TOLD HER THAT SINGING THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER WOULD MAKE PASSENGERS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES UNCOMFORTABLE,”
“I couldn’t put up with that,” Gaudry told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. “I wouldn’t be offended if I was in their country.”
Gaudry said she kept quiet until she was off the plane. Then she found an unoccupied stretch of the airport terminal where she took out her cellphone and self-recorded a 6 minute, 30 second video that she posted on Facebook. The video immediately went viral and now has over 1 million shares.
“The chief flight attendant came back to my seat and she kneeled down and she said, ‘It is against company policy to do what you’re doing,’” Gaudry said in the video.
“And I said, ‘The national anthem? And there’s a soldier onboard?’ And she said, ‘Yes, you cannot sing the national anthem. It is against company policy.’”
In her video, Gaudry expressed serious regret for her decision to not speak up.
“I just did the most uncourageous thing in my life today,” she said.
Gaudry didn’t expect to attract this kind of attention for her video, but she is glad to spark this conversation.
“If it instigates a spiritual and patriotic feeling in this country, I’m thrilled.”
See the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/100005238404837/videos/774193229431950/
Via (LibertyWriters)
