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 exampl...