For Donald J. Carty, President and CEO of AMR Corporation (Ft. Worth, TX—parent company of American Airlines), laying off 20,000 or more American Airlines employees is "one of the hardest things [he’s] had to do" in his two decades or so with AMR.

We feel his pain.

It’s certainly been a tough year for AMR Corp. First there was an antitrust lawsuit dismissal in April under the newly appointed Bush regime--of COURSE American Airlines wasn’t driving discount carriers from the market and monopolizing Dallas/Ft. Worth service by cutting fares and adding flights unfairly.

Then there was the July agreement (read: capitulation) of the Allied Pilots Association allowing American to lift the cap on the number of regional jets American can purchase. Completely unrelated to this was negotiation of a $45.5 million lawsuit slapped on the pilots union for supposedly costing the airline $225 million in profits with a 10-day pilot strike over (unaddressed) company contract violations.

Fortunately, the sympathy from the Bush cartel keeps pouring in for Mr. Carty. Bush’s (taxpayer-funded? social "security" lock box-funded?) $5 billion emergency aid to the airline industry and $12.5 billion credit/loan package should help bolster Carty’s spirits. At the very least, it will certainly add even more return on Carty’s (maximum) $5,000 personal donation to support Bush’s legal fight following the contested Florida "vote," as well as AMR’s (maximum) $100,000 gift to the Bush inaugural committee.

We certainly hope and pray Carty finds some comfort in these small gestures of goodwill. But if not, there are always his $4.1 million salary (FY2000) and his 592,000 shares of AMR worth $21.4 million (as of July 23) that might help ease the pain—not to mention his remuneration for serving as a director on the boards of Dell Computer and Brinker International Inc.

Or perhaps Mr. Carty might find comfort and solidarity in the support and fellowship of his company’s newly laid-off flight attendants ($24K—69K average yearly salary) and pilots ($23K—140K average yearly salary). Or maybe all those lower-paid regional pilots he will now be able to hire (at $17K—43K average yearly salary) to replace laid-off pilots might come to his rescue, along with the heroic airline fire and crash rescue workers ($16K—48K average yearly salary) we have all been applauding. I’m sure once they finish clearing the rubble of the World Trade Center and get back home to their fresh pink slips, they’ll be more than happy to assuage poor Don Carty’s pain.

In the meantime, perhaps Mr. Carty can find the will and energy to look through his tears of anguish into the unusually high put option trading around AMR Corp’s stock August 30 and September 10. The Chicago Board Options Exchange was looking into it right before the attacks, but unfortunately, they may be a little distracted right now.

Of course, as experts assert, it probably just stemmed from September 7 profit warnings and subsequent analysts’ comments on the relevant sector. Who knows--we'll have to leave speculation to the corporate media--

--which, by the way, was quick to step in and point out to us this was perhaps the result of stock-savvy terrorists meddling in the markets to capitalize on events.

This certainly would not be the first time our markets have been meddled with in times of crisis.

Whatever the case, let’s all hope Mr. Carty can find the strength to get to the bottom of things and carry on in this time of hardship for him.