In conclusion of this young man who crashed a single engine Cessna 152 into the Bank of America we see a whole chain of events; events, which should not have occurred at all. What can we do to prevent such kids from going astray in our society? Read the conclusion of my thoughts and perhaps you might find and answer to these questions. We need to reward those who achieve success in everything they do, encourage kids to think, reason, adapt and overcome. Teach kids not to give up like our present generation having changed jobs every 3.2 years, change majors 5 times in college, change significant others every 3-4 years in marriage. We are not teaching stability, hard work ethics or even stick-to-it-ness. Our grandparents warned us of this, in their struggles of the depression, yet we have learned nothing as a society. We will face the same challenges without fixing the problem. History is repeating what we already know. And we are sitting here watching it unfold and placing blame on everyone else. That young man who crashed into that building is our fault, yours and mine, yes his too. Not just the FAA, FARs, and it is not governments problem, it is our problem as a society and the values we are placing on our youth. Do not expect government to fix it. If you ask government to fix it, they make more laws and more worthless rhetoric ensues at the podiums and in the halls of congress and every photo-op TV, Radio show, and newspaper. What about National Mentors Month. Why not show this as an issue. Give the CAP control over the problems. Let the older pilots talk with the kids, take them up in aircraft, show them, explain their experiences. Not to convince them to teach them all they have learned and let those young people come to their own conclusions and they will lead us into the future. They will live longer than we will and it appears they are smarter too. And give the CAP its credibility back, and their tax write-offs and their status symbols of calling themselves what ever they want. Colonel, Sgt, Major, whatever if it makes them happy. This gives them a since of status they may not have been able to achieve, it gives them respect they want and helps them help the kids. We need to set up plans to get this country back into tiptop shape. The longer we wait to fix it the worse it will be. The answer is not to put kids on Prozac and Ridlin, to put them in jail, humiliate them with trash pick-up on the Freeway. First we fix the problems then we should have a lot less kids to punish. There is also a group out of Houston of Helicopter Pilots, mostly law enforcement who take kids for aircraft rides. The Eagles program with the EAA took 400,000 young people for aircraft rides last year. This is a great way to show kids there is more to this world than meets the eye. Amelia Earhart got an airplane ride in her teens and she was hooked. Look what she did for women and womens rights with all her speaking engagements and notoriety. There are so many pilots and so many great people that are pilots. Not letting young people fly is like not letting Tiger Woods on a golf course, its just stupid, yet that was not that long ago was it. I imagine if Hitler knew about Jesse Owens ability, he would never have been allowed in Munich for the Olympic games. We keep doing stupid things and the people we call experts keep making more dumb laws about stuff they do not know about. How many Congressmen had to wash airplanes to learn to fly at a young age? One maybe two. Do you honestly think they would vote for more laws in aviation? Certainly not, yet they are the ones who know about such, who are able to change policy. Why dont they stick up for what is right here and say something? If it were not for our victories in the air in previous wars we would not be able to maintain our countries freedom. We would not be here today. President Bush Sr. was 17-18 when he was shot down in a torpedo plane in WWII. On a mission that most did not come back from. He almost did not. Are we to say that our Presidents experience could never have existed in todays times? The answer is YES, that is what we are saying. Why are we saying that? Are we to believe that the media and all its crap and scare tactics are really the policy makers and the congress only votes for things that their brain dead constituency thinks is right? Based on what? The constituencies 5 hour per not TV addiction and 7 second TV switcher channel check mentality. The policy makers vote for whatever the poles say is right. It is okay to help our young people, those who put forth real effort to achieve the carrot once in a while. We should help them get there, whenever we can as long as they are truly striving for it. Lets make the American dream a reality, and lets boo off the stage the policy makers who use scare tactics, photo-ops and rhetoric to achieve new heights in political stature. We need policy makers with balls, those who will say no, those who take charge and those who believe in what America is all about. Those who forget should re-read the Constitution of the United Sates of America. We do not need any more rules in general aviation. Think on this. |
