The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Wednesday, January 28, 2004  

THE MORE YOU KNOW . . .
The Worse It Gets

You know what? They’re not “stewardesses.”

The women and men who feed you peanuts, they’re on the friggin’ front line.

I lost a good friend on September 11, 2001, and I lived in New York then. And lately every reminder of that horrible day is not less but more painful than before. The words of Betty Ong, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, reported by ABC News, are horrific in their intensity and in their mock banality.

You know, when you think about it, there’s really nothing heroic about Ong’s work on that fateful day.

She was just doing her job.

And so the next time you hear stupidity from The Wall Street Journal and its loyal lackeys on the right-wing side of the blogosphere about “overpaid” flight attendants and the “demands” of their union, think again.

Think about Betty Ong.

She’s dead now.

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