Meet John Doe

Link for this photo:  Flight Attendant Meets Barry Manilow

I've been away from blogging, Facebook, even my FarmVille lately simply because I'm really busy right now.  I did, however, think I should post this because it seems like history (even if it's fictional history) seems to be repeating itself.

The guy on the right (if you haven't watched tv or read any online news stories lately) is Steven Slater who blew up and left his job as a flight attendant rather abruptly after what has been an alleged argument with a passenger who wasn't following the rules.  I say alleged, because now people who were on the flight are speaking up and saying the argument never happened.  I have no feelings about that part of the story because I wasn't there and don't know the real details.

The past few weeks (which have been the first two weeks of school with the students) has been really crazy for me.  There is usually some amount of "tweaking" with the computers needed at the beginning of the year, plus training and meetings to attend.  This year has reached a new level of craziness due to a staff member's abrupt departure from my school.  I don't know all of the details, I just know that my workload has doubled with a lot of the responsibilities I am handling being things I was never trained in.  I feel bad for this staff member, I really do, but now I feel like I'm barely treading water due to someone else's decisions.

Then I read this on Tuesday:

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/16/reality-show-offers-pour-in-for-steven-slater/?hpt=T2

While I really don't care about this guy, what struck me is that he has a publicist, but is using a court appointed lawyer for the charges against him.  In other words, he's out getting photo ops and going on a cruise, but his lawyer is being paid for by the taxpayers.  I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in paying for this guy's attorney if he's got a publicist.

The other issue here, though, is surrounding all of the publicity this guy is getting right now.  He seems to be all over the place getting all of these pictures taken, some people referring to him as a hero while others refer to him as a villain.  Personally, I wonder if this is the first time he's lost his temper, or just the one time his temper tantrum made news.  All I know is if I were a business owner, I wouldn't be hiring this guy to interact with my customer base given what has happened.

This does remind me of an old movie I know and love.  I love the Frank Capra classic movies, as there was a moral to the story.  These were movies made during the depression and while they aren't the action packed thrillers you see millions spent on making today, these shows have had staying power because of the stories and the morals.






And if you'd like to watch the full movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZEHV1T5B6g