{"id":66,"date":"2010-08-16T15:33:52","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T15:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/08\/when-psycho-flight-attendants-become-heroes.html"},"modified":"2010-08-16T15:33:52","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T15:33:52","slug":"when-psycho-flight-attendants-become-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/08\/when-psycho-flight-attendants-become-heroes.htm","title":{"rendered":"When Psycho Flight Attendants Become Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Slater. American hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The JetBlue flight attendant who blew a gasket and cursed out his passengers chuted out of his plane and straight into mythic American status as a workingman’s hero. Go get ’em Steve. Stick it to the man. Tell those darned awful, rude passengers where they can shove those bags they hit you with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

Forget the fact that they actually pay your salary, or that you wear
\nthe uniform of a company that expects you to represent them with civility.
\nForget also that had you erupted just twenty minutes earlier while the plane
\nwas in mid-air and activated the emergency exit you would have killed yourself
\nalong with a bunch of the hated passenger miscreants. The only thing that
\nmatters, Steve, is that you’re angry. And when you’re upset, just go with it.
\nSay what you feel Swear like a sailor. We’re with you Steve. We’re also fed up
\nand we’re not going to take it any more. You’re our guy. Babies will be named
\nafter you. JetBlue will let you fly the plane next time. Goooooo Steeeeeve!<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But what does it really say about American culture that we’re prepared
\nto elevate someone who behaves like an out-of-control psycho as a model of how
\nall working stiffs ought to act? Every day two million American service men and
\nwomen of the United States military take orders from superiors for meager pay,
\ndodge IED’s in Afghanistan and snipers in Iraq, and rarely get any appreciation
\nother than empty lip service from the American people they protect. And yet,
\nwith the occasional exception of a celebrity like David Petraeus, they labor on
\nin utter anonymity. They endure pressures that a spoiled child like Steven
\nSlater can scarcely comprehend. But you don’t see them flipping out and
\nejecting from their F-16’s over Kabul because they hate their jobs and feel
\nundervalued and underappreciated. Yet it’s Steve Slater who’s being treated
\nlike a hero.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The truth of the strange tale of the mad Jet Blue flight attendant is
\nthat America is becoming an angrier, more vulgar nation. Lunatics that erupt in
\npublic are considered entertaining. They amuse us and capture our attention.
\nFrom Donald Trump who called Rosie O’Donnell a ‘fat slob,’ to Rosie who shot
\nback that the Donald is a pimp, there is scarcely the expectation that people
\nin the public eye will behave with decorum and civility. The idea of sitting
\npassively in his seat apparently never passed through the mind of Kanye West at
\nlast year’s MTV music awards. On Talk Radio there are daily rants where
\nliberals call conservatives morons and conservatives calls liberals idiots. A
\ngood time is had by all the listeners. The more angry the host, the bigger the
\naudience. Joe Wilson can call the President of the United States a liar in
\npublic and see his fundraising go through the roof. On MSNBC Keith Olberman
\ndoes his nightly ‘Worst Person in the World routine,’ which, while humorous,
\nendorses the idea of extreme name-calling as outrageous entertainment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I, for one, don’t need Democrats and Republicans to agree with each
\nother, and I have no problem with one party obstructing the legislative agenda
\nof the other when they believe it is injurious to the country. If I want a
\none-party state I’ll move to China. But the expectation of basic civility
\nbetween the parties is surely not too much to ask.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The growing culture of disparagement came to a head with the Ground
\nZero mosque with the billionaire mayor of New York telling those who questioned
\nthe mosque that they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Really? Was it too much
\nto ask that the mosque organizers show basic sensitivity by meeting with the
\nvictims families prior to building, and ensuring that at least a single floor
\nof edifice be dedicated as a shrine to those who died on 9\/11 and a museum with
\nexhibitions repudiating Islamic extremists?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Next it was President Obama’s turn to condescendingly lecture the
\npublic about constitutional rights regarding freedom of worship, as if what we
\nare allowed to do in this country is the automatic equivalent of what we ought<\/i>
\nto do.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not that the mosque’s opponents are free of anger themselves. A great
\nmany continually excoriate Islam as an evil and militant religion, forgetting
\nthat for the past millennia a great many crimes have been perpetrated in the
\nname of Christianity until brave men like John XXIII, John Paul II, and a host
\nof modern evangelical leaders like Billy Graham and Rick Warren returned
\nChristianity to its original teachings of peace and love. We await more Islamic
\nleaders doping the same for their faith, repudiating the militants and
\nemphasizing Islam’s teachings of peace.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But there is light at the end of this angry tunnel, with some
\nresponsible members of the culture rejecting the growing anger and
\ncondescension that has come to define it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Simon Cowell brought an all-too-typical British television nastiness
\nto the American airwaves with his constant put-downs of American Idol
\ncontestants as talentless losers who ought to go back to stocking shelves at
\nWal-Mart. But Ellen DeGeneres resigned shortly after filling his place because,
\nshe said, she simply did not want a job putting people down and making them
\nfeel bad about themselves.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This doesn’t mean, of course, that an American Idol judge, or anyone
\nelse, has to lie and ascribe talent where it doesn’t exist or excuse the
\ninexcusable. It does mean that one can be respectively dismissive of someone
\nwithout robbing them of every shred of human dignity, and one can stand up for
\nwhat one believes without demonizing the other side.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach hosts ‘The Shmuley Show’ on 77 WABC in NYC. He
\nis the founder of This World: The Values Network, and is the author, most
\nrecently, of ‘Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life.’ Follow him on Twitter
\n@RabbiShmuley.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Slater. American hero.   The JetBlue flight attendant who blew a gasket and cursed out his passengers chuted out of his plane and straight into mythic American status as a workingman’s hero. Go get ’em Steve. Stick it to the man. Tell those darned awful, rude passengers where they can shove those bags they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","category-values"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Psycho Flight Attendants Become Heroes - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/08\/when-psycho-flight-attendants-become-heroes.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Psycho Flight Attendants Become Heroes - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Steve Slater. 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