The passengers in Row 12

Oh, this is just beautiful. Bee-ut-ti-ful. First, let's stipulate to a few facts to set the scene for the tragicomedy I'm about to describe. Shoshana Hebshi, a self-described "half-Arab, half-Jewish" housewife living in suburban Ohio, is an American citizen. You know, as in "Born in the USA" American, as Boss Springsteen would sing it. Her blood is as red, white and blue as mine and you and yours. Hebshi, a writer and editor, has a graduate-level degree in journalism from the Iowa State University. And she's never had any run-ins with the law. Let's also stipulate to the high likelihood that some non-Semitic-looking Americans would consider her Semitic-looking.

Act I. Hebshi decided to fly home to Detroit (from Denver) on 9/11 thinking the airport lines would be short and most planes empty. The trip should be a piece of cake, she thought. "Silly me," she later wrote. Hebshi's flight was indeed easy and incident-free. They would even land on time (a miracle in itself). The only thing amiss was the pair of F-16s shadowing Frontier Flight 623. You see, one of the 116 passengers aboard reported seeing "suspicious" activity by Hebshi and the two al-Qaeda terrorists Semitic-looking men sitting next to her. (She knew neither men, by the way. The two men didn't know each other either.) The pilot radioed home base which in turn radioed NORAD which in turn went to DefCon 2.

Act II. Hebshi's flight lands. But instead of taxiing to the terminal, the plane parks in a remote area of the airport. They are soon surrounded by SWAT teams. Meanwhile, Hebshi is keeping up a running commentary via Twitter. Thirty minutes tick pass. What's going on? "I had to pee. I wanted to get home and see my family. And I wanted someone to tell us what was going on," Hebshi recalled. Her last tweet: "Majorly armed cops coming aboard."

Act III. To Hebshi's great surprise, the cops escort her and the two other occupants of Row 12 off the plane. The rest is like a stereotypical episode of Law & Order. They're shoved against a police car. They're told to spread 'em. They're frisked. They're asked if they're wearing explosives. They're cuffed. Hebshi is rushed into the back a a squad car. "It’s a plastic seat, for all you out there who have never been tossed into the back of a police car. It’s hard, it’s hot, and it’s humiliating." Long story short: Hebshi is whisked off to an off-site 6-by-10 cell, strip-searched and interrogated. Some numskull even asked if she spoke English (to which she responded: "Of course I speak English I’m an American citizen!" She opted not to append "you asshole!" to her declaration). Needless to say, Hebshi and the other two men (who are of Indian descent) were released hours later. No charges were filed. Henshi kept her head throughout it all and didn't let loose with the angry expletives she was understandably thinking.

Epilogue. Hebshi said that upon release, her FBI interrogator said: “It’s 9/11 and people are seeing ghosts. They are seeing things that aren’t there." Apparently, there had been some 50 similar incidents across the country that day, the agent said. But that doesn't excuse it. This was racial profiling, plain and simple. It was also a gross overreaction by airline and security officials to the nitwit passenger who started it all. Have we really become so panicky? Hebshi looks about as terrifying as Bambi. Fortunately, they picked on the wrong hembra. She reminds me of a kinder, gentler version of Riddick who, after defeating an alien raptor in Pitch Black, cracked: "[He] did not know who he was fuckin' with." Neither did the overreaching antagonists in this sad story. Hebshi eloquently shared her experience on her blog. As a result, her story is all over the Internet today. The co-stars in this tragicomedy should be grateful that Hebshi didn't name names. Clearly, some of us need reminding that diversity is what made this country great. Ms. Hebshi is proof enough of that. And isn't it poetic irony that she was the one who kept her wits about her and didn't overreact?