I know everyone here usually expects me to go on a tirade ranting and raving about the newest things that pisses me off... which is fine because that is actually the premise of What's YOUR Deal?!? In fact, the enormous number of responses to my last blog nearly brought a tear to my eye. Why? Because it makes me realize that people ARE reading the words that I type... and people ARE thinking about the things they are reading. Even if I stop the stupidization of just ONE person per week... I am doing the world an enormous favor. We look at the world today and realize that there is SO much that's completely and utterly jacked up... and people never really stop to think, "WTF mate? How did we get here?" People live their lives with blinders on... completely and utterly focused on their own selfish wants and needs and their own closed-minded ideologies. What's wrong with looking at someone you completely disagree with and listening to them without judgment? You just might learn something new. People don't like taking criticism. If you throw your opinions out into the public forum, expect people to tell you you're wrong. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. This is why I love writing my rants. Instead of letting these thoughts fester in my head and be wasted, I want to do my part to try to better the world one rant at a time. And I absolutely welcome all comers to try and knock me of this soapbox. I thank all of you.
Anyways, the topic for the week is hope. Just when it seems like I have given up hope for humanity, something happens that's totally unexpected and, quite frankly, surprising. All of you know my ongoing fist-shaking war against the airline industry... but this past week when US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River in New York, I was floored by how it all went down. This one event gave me a very unexpected shove towards the edge of my soapbox.
For those not familiar with the story, Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia in New York heading to Charlotte, NC and hit a flock of geese which essentially destroyed both of the Airbus A320's engines. Freaky scary? I think so. The pilot, former Air Force pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger managed to glide the plane, with it's 150 passengers and 5 crewmembers, away from populated areas and into the best possible place to crash a jetliner: the Hudson River. The only injury was a woman that had two broken legs. Heck, if I survived being in a plane falling from the sky? I'd be kosher with that. Although, here's my cynicism coming out again: I predict that woman (or perhaps any other passenger on that flight) will sue US Airways. Let's see if I'm right.
I digress. When the plane set down in the river... people came to the rescue. Little ferryboats came rushing to the crashed plane and started evacuating passengers. People disembarked that sinking plane with seeming more order than the rabid rush of idiocy that most other flights disembark. Wow. People weren't shirking their responsibilities as human beings to come to the rescue of those in need with stupid excuses like, "Oh, the plane is too far, someone else will do it," or "Oh that's not my job." Can you imagine what it would be like if the people at the scene were like that? You know, the retards that don't return their shopping carts or set good example for their kids... those "fucktards" that inhibit the forward progress of humanity? But no... this is why I'm surprised. That people will go out of their way in that scenario, but yet don't have the common decency to do the little things in life. This confuses me.
Because all I can think is... what if the plane was full of black people and those ferries were full of members of the KKK... would the same thing happen? Or what if the plane was full of gay people and the ferries had members of the Westboro Baptist Church? Or the plane was full of Bloods and the ferries full of Crips? Al-Qaeda and the Bush Administration? Israelis and Palestinians? Seriously. We can do the entire gamut of groups that hate each other. Would the same shining examples of humanitarian effort be seen? I'd like to think the answer is yes, but... I'm not so sure.
I really want to believe that what happened in the aftermath of Flight 1549 going down is the norm... but even if it isn't... it's really nice to see the goodness of humanity when it does happen in today's crazy mixed up world. Likewise, I see the same hope and inspiration coming on Tuesday when President-Elect Barack Obama is sworn into office. Optimism feels weird.
SIDENOTE: http://www.zazzle.com/docpoonie Check it out. If you like my blogs... show your support and spread the word. Do your part to save the economy one superfluous purchase at a time. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment