As you may know, today, Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee returned home to their families via Southern California’s Burbank Airport. What you may not know, is that Southwest Airlines and a 12-year-old boy contributed, in a very small way, to securing the release of these two wonderful journalists.
Last month, Southwest donated two free flights to both the family of Euna Lee and National Group Leader, Brendan Creamer. And, two people are responsible for this flight donation – Southwest Employee Michele Kyle, and the person who called to ask for the tickets…me, Max Jones (I’m the 12-year old).
I am a journalist at Rezox TV, and cannot imagine the pain that San Francisco-based Current TV's journalists have gone through. I have been working to get the two women released since I did a story on my fellow journalists in March, two days after their detainment, by holding and managing vigils both here in my hometown of Orlando, FL and around our world.
A few weeks ago, there was a large vigil scheduled to be held in one of Southwest’s hub’s, Chicago. I knew that the family of Euna Lee and the national vigil organizer were eager to attend the event but did not have arrangements for air travel.
I called Southwest and was lucky to reach Michele on the other end of the line. She and Southwest went above and beyond to organize a flight donation in less than 24 hours. They truly pulled off a miracle!
