Steven Slater, Baseball, and the Anger of America

By now certainly you’ve heard of Steven Slater, the flight attendant who, suffering one too many abusive passengers, cursed the last offender over the intercom, activated the plane’s emergency escape slide, grabbed a beer and slid to the tarmac. Slater became an instant folk hero. “Free Steven Slater” T-shirts are popping up all over the country.

Slater had finally had it with wrongs he was supposed to accept. When that passenger slammed the lid of an overhead bin on his head, airline rules told him he had to act with restraint. This time, he didn’t.

Americans identify with Steven Slater. When economic recovery means upticks on the Dow and no real progress in creating jobs, we’re supposed to be accepting. When our country engages in misbegotten and/or unwinnable foreign adventures, we’re supposed to watch the coffins coming home and salute. When our elected leaders fail to even address serious problems like climate change and energy, we’re supposed to wait until the next election, as if that will change a system of governance corrupted by money and cowardice. When we see the gap between rich and poor destroying the very fabric of our public life, we’re supposed to try harder to be rich ourselves.

A Picture of Haiti You May Not Have Seen

I forward this report from Antoine Jaulmes, a French  auto engineer  and a colleague of mine in Initiatives of Change (IofC), a non-governmental organization working for peace, reconciliation and human security worldwide.

Rebuilding Haiti will not be enough

By Antoine Jaulmes

20 January 2010

The 12 January earthquake in Haiti was devastating. Between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed. International aid was mobilized quickly, though there was much criticism that the aid sent was slow to reach those most in need; the deployment of aid was slowed by the destruction of the country’s infrastructure—already inadequate because of Haiti’s acute poverty.

Why was it that the daily reality of Haiti did not cause the same kind of emotional response as the catastrophe which hit the island? Life expectancy in Haiti is only 53 years (against about 75 years in developed countries). The death rate of children under five is 12.3 per cent (against 0.5 per cent in developed countries), meaning that over 40,000 very young children die every year in Haiti. Losing your child before its fifth birthday is a rare tragedy for the developed world but a cruel reality in Haiti – the odds are one in seven. Ninety-five per cent of these tragedies could be avoided if poverty receded.