The main purpose of this blog is to point out mistaken policies and to check any over-inflated egos of the Obama Administration. However, one cannot be a critic and be only negative. A critic of society must also point out praiseworthy acts, no matter who does them.
I salute the members of the Royal Air
Force who saved the life of pilot Jim O’Neill on October 31, 2008.
Mr. O’Neill was flying a Cessna when he suffered a stroke, causing
temporary blindness. After calling a Mayday, an RAF team from nearby
Linton-on-Ouse sent a Tucano T1 prop aircraft that served as his
guide and enabled him to land safely. Mr. O’Neill is recovering at
hospital.
These airmen deserve our applause. In
the days of the Roman Republic, they’d get a Civic Crown for saving
the life of a fellow citizen. I hope the British government
recognizes them with suitable medals soon.
Politicians love to point out “unsung
heroes” such as these men and women of the RAF. It can be annoying
to hear this, because often the politician has no intention to
emulate the courage or innovation they laud in public. The
requirement to go along with other politicians, or the need to please
key constituencies, blinds them to the subtext—that if courage and
innovation are good in private life, they are also good in public
life. That is the true American mos maiorum – the custom the
ancestors gave us.
And yet, this change was based on
sound, existing practices combined in a new way. The RAF air traffic
controllers and pilots didn’t have to sweep away the Mayday call or
procedures to scramble an interceptor to save Mr. O’Neill. They
used what had been given to them. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it.
So, there is an object lesson for the
Obama Administration: make change based only on necessity, and base
the changes on sound, known principles.
The story of Mr. O’Neill can be found at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5107128.ece
An explanation of mos maiorum can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mos_maiorum
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