United (or not)

How long has it been since you spent a full day without hearing one of the following?

War on Women

Fair Share

99%’er

1%

Corporate Greed

Warren Buffets’ Poor Secretary

Oil Company Profits

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy DC

            $250,000 (The Rich)

            Jabs at Religion (Catholic for now)

The list could go on and on…

When you hear these words and words like these, does your life somehow seem better? 

Do the words make you motivated to go out and enjoy the blessings of your life?

Does a little ray of sunshine fall upon you and brighten even the darkest of nights?

I doubt it.  These words make you fill threatened, worried, angry, and maybe even just a bit envious.  As the emotions fill your thoughts you separate yourself from others, the negativity builds in your life creating more anguish and misery.

I’d like to share two short stories, two examples that may shed a bit of light on what we are seeing in our society today.

    Let’s say we’re at Podunk Air Base in the middle of nowhere at shift change.  All the dayshift and nightshift crew chiefs (mechanics) are in the hanger discussing what condition the jets are in, what maintenance needs to be done, the flight schedule and fuel needs.  Suddenly the Squadron Commander walks in and starts making a few off hand comments “Looks like dayshift didn’t do a thing today, all the jets came in broken but they just parked them and must have walked away”.  “It’s a wonder we ever make our flight schedule”.  “Guess it’s up to nightshift to pickup the slack… Again”.                          

What do you think the outcome was?  Did nightshift fill dumped on, was dayshift motivated to come in and get the jets in the air the next day?  Do you think the unit started to tear its self apart, crumble and not meet its daily flight schedules?

    Now back at Podunk AB, same shift change but a different Commander walks in.  He starts talking to the troops “Wow, Dayshift got hit hard”.  “All the jets came in at once, in poor, poor, shape”.  “We’re going to need a stellar effort to meet tomorrow’s flight schedule”.  “Thanks for your efforts today guys”.

Different outcome maybe?  Nightshift may still fill a bit dumped on but they know why and they know they’re being counted on.  Dayshift is motivated by the Commanders recognition and will be even more committed to meeting the flight schedule.  Actually most of the time if a Commander came in making comments like that and things are bad the shifts will stay over (without being asked) to help get the jets ready.  You’re looking at a unit that will pull together and meet its flight schedule.  I’ve seen it firsthand more than once.

    Leaving good old Podunk behind now we’re all standing in hanger America.  Men, Women, Rich, Poor, Middle Class, Corporations, Small Business, Employees, Management, Unions, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Buddhist…  We’re all here, discussing the economy, jobs, national priorities, rights, privileges, entitlements…

And in walks the Commander (and Chief)...

What message is he bringing?  Is he uniting or dividing?  Building or tearing down?  Are we being motivated to pull together to solve our problems or are we bickering amongst ourselves.  Only difference between us and the poor mechanics at Podunk 1 is we get to pick our Commander.  It’s your choice…

By the way, us crew chiefs can’t stand it when our jets miss a scheduled flight; if need be we’ll pick’em up and throw them into the air. Those things are heavy, my back still hurtsJ

Till Next Week

The TOMCAT