I'm not diminishing the injury to Dr. Dao which, as Mac points out, appears more serious than first reported. But in the interests of balance, it's worth noting that three protestors who were beaten by police at the G20 summit a few years ago (including one who suffered severe facial injuries) were each awarded $25,000. And while I think Dr. Dao had every right to protest his treatment by United, the underlying breach of his civil rights is nowhere near as egregious as what happened to those protestors in Toronto. They were protesting something far more important than a personal inconvenience imposed on them by an insensitive airline.

Yes, Dao deserves compensation but, again, not in the millions. He has my sympathies but not nearly as much as those courageous people in Russia who risk life and limb to protests the actions of a vicious dictator - or the millions of other people around the world who march for something more important than being forced to wait for the next flight.