Antics in the Air

Why do we reward bad behavior by making heroes out of people who have done something wrong? I was just listening to the commentary on Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who cursed at passengers, pulled the emergency exit chute, grabbed a couple of beers and then slid off running to his car, putting many at risk with his poor behavior. In the past few days he has gotten thousands of fans on his Facebook page and has even raised money to help with his defense. He is being called a “folk hero.” There is something very erroneous with this behavior.

As one who served the public for many years in a classroom, there were many days when I too could have jumped and run—notice I said could have, but there was a choice to be made. You can imagine that there were “abusive” students in the inner-city school where I worked who may have been much ruder in their behavior than the passengers on an airplane, but the thought never crossed my mind to abandon them. They needed me to be the example and not contribute to the problem.

There are always choices to be made and ways of handling situations that can make them better or worse. Steven Slater could have “killed the passengers with kindness” which might have made them become better, more considerate individuals in the future. He could have calmly suggested an apology or offered assistance, instead he bailed.

My fear is that his behavior and the response it is getting from the public will empower others to unleash bad conduct in their workplaces over incidents of seemingly minor consequence (after all, don’t most of us have trouble getting our bags in and out of those tight overhead bins). What might happen if I accidently spill something that a waitress might have to clean up or inadvertently cause a landslide of lemons in the produce department? Will it also give someone the “right” to chase me down if I am in the wrong lane going through a round-about just because they are having a bad day?

We must stand up for the people who make the right choices everyday—the hard working individuals who do their job and do it politely no matter how they are treated. They are the real heroes. But on the other hand, we need to treat those who serve us in many ways day after day with kindness and respect. We need to show them how much we appreciate the things they do for us. We need to go back to the basics of saying, “Please,” Thank you,” and I’m sorry.” I hope that you will join me in this campaign. Let’s be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Job 34:4 Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.

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