Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Are you serious?


  I normally don’t use my blog as a soapbox to weigh in on national issues, or things in the news. I haven’t come on here and complained about BP ruining the environment, or governments of the world ignoring genocides in Sudan. I haven’t written about how little I care that Lindsay Lohan went to jail or that Britney Spears likes to flash her junk all around town. But this story…
  This Steven Slater asshole, the flight attendant who quit his job so dramatically that it made national headlines, is something I just can’t ignore. Now, I’ve already heard that he’s being supported on Facebook by people who think he’s really cool for doing what he did. Then I read this morning that he’s being touted as a ‘folk hero.’ But the final straw came with the headline: “Is Steven Slater the new ‘Sully?’”
  You have to be kidding me. The very concept of that so enrages me that I want to kick somebody in the teeth. Captain Sully had to ditch a commercial airliner in a river after his engines were destroyed by birdstrikes. That man kept his cool, and saved the lives of everybody on board. How is this candy-ass, tantrum throwing flight attendant IN ANY WAY comparable to a man like that?

  He’s not.

  Why our society has taken to making heroes out of idiots is beyond my comprehension. Folks, all this guy did was lose his mind, go on an expletive-laden rant over the intercom of the plane, and then purposefully caused as much mayhem as he could. He knew exactly what he was doing. There is nothing ‘heroic’ about any of this pathetic behavior. It’s childish, vulgar, and not an example to anybody.
  Having worked in retail before, I can tell you that dealing with the public is no picnic. People are prone to say the most horrific things, right to your face, and treat you like you’re the most worthless piece of garbage they’ve ever seen. It comes with the job. If you can’t take the abuse, then you need to find a new job. Get over yourself.
  If you want to talk about the heroes of jobs that deal with the public, talk to me about the waitresses, salespeople and cashiers who put up with bullshit every day, but take it, earn their pay, and then go home and forget about it. There is certainly no excuse for people to be rude to you on the job, and you have every right to be angry when it happens, but you can be the bigger person. Suck it up, do your job, and kill them with kindness. Remember what a terrible example those people set, and be nicer when you’re on the other side of that counter, or sitting at that table in the restaurant.
  You wanna worship heroes, worship somebody worth a damn. Thank the people that make your day easier, or thank the people that cure sickness, or protect your freedoms or your property. The rest is just nonsense.

  That’s my piece.



1 comment:

  1. Darn, I thought you were talking about Sully from Monsters Inc. He was a real hero too.

    Seriously though, I never cease to be amazed by the worthless crap that gets churned up as supposedly "newsworthy." Do the majority of people really have so little going on in their daily lives that this stuff matters or is it all just a diversion.

    Damn you Michael Jackson for leaving us prematurely with so little sensational to talk about.

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