TOGETHERNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY

It’s been a dramatic year so far for news reporters in many parts of the world including those covering the aftermath of the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol Building, the continuing tussle over US democracy, a gridlocked Congress, political and financial chaos, along with gun violence, train derailments, air-traffic scares, and many other disturbing issues.

At least there’s been some comfort in the firm effort of several newspapers and magazines to recommend solutions, such as those offered by The Christian Science Monitor Weekly, which devoted a full page in January to recalling the heroism of Captain C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, who in January 2009 landed a US Airways jet in the Hudson River after a birdstrike, saving all 155 passengers on board.  The report quoted Sullenberger’s modesty in just 13 words: “I chose the least bad option. And I was glad to have it.” 

You keep on solving problems as long as you can, with as much altitude or airspeed as you have, said Captain Sullenberberger, sharing some of the ideas he has about a course correction especially for the new US Congress. He says it requires leadership characterized by everyday citizens who in their own work keep solving problems or face the consequences.   

“No one can be neutral, he adds, without being morally bankrupt or cowardly.” It’s about personal diplomacy. It’s not a time for sleepwalking through one’s civic duties. “We have to tell people what the stakes are, and why it matters, and how life will be better if we do these things together.”