Walking on the WIngs of the Hudson

a call to action

Can we as a Nation,

Walk on the Wings of the Hudson?

All of us by now, or have seen the pictures, the videos, and perhaps heard the stories of the fortunate passengers and crew of Flight 1549. I was captivated over the last 24 hours and could not help but draw parallels to our Nation and ourselves to these normal folks who lived through this extraordinary event. Like the times we find ourselves in, this mixed group of all types of people went from gaining altitude, and a complete sence of normalcy, to being earth bound, terrified, thinking perhaps they would never recover from this the most unsettling of all situations.

 

 

Like the birds that jammed up those turbines; careless men and practices have jammed up the powerful engines of the great dream of capitalism. Like those passengers many of us are sitting in a stoic panic too scared to respond and too terrified to breathe. In an instant all that was important only minutes ago was meaningless. The economy, petty, your job, indifferent, Racism, Bigotry, Sexism, gone, Addiction, Fear, and inadequacy, gone. Oh there was fear all right but it must have been a cleansing fear that removed even the last shreds of personal preference.

 

 

And then the miracle happened. With the winds of uncertainty blowing all around them the good captain got back to the basics. This was his bird, these were his people, and by God, this was his home. He got back to what he learned as a young man, and in that he assessed his situation, took stock in what he could control, and then rolled that bird down into the calm steady current of the nearly freezing Hudson. And all this, in the proud view of a very welcoming Lady Liberty.

 

 

What this was is a miracle. It is exactly what this Country is all about. A Nation that less than a decade ago saw our two shining trophies of free market and excess crumbled by the silent enmity of desperate men. This day the recovery was very similar in the valor of the good people of New York. But of course different, in that everyone survived. Everyone.

 

 

Every once in a while a story comes along and things change a little bit forever. 2001 was such a time. Now is such a time. We owe the promise of tomorrow to those who have gone before us and it is in that debt that we must not simply cower to the conditions. Much like the brave crew of 1549 we must stay focused on the job at hand. Are we guaranteed the utopian times that we have experienced in our recent past? Of course not.

 

 Are we competent enough as a nation to show the determination and concentrated calmness of the passengers who walked on the wings of the Hudson. I say we are how about you?

 

 

Andy McGee Jan 09