This is the story of two men, Peter the Pilot, and Sven Devinjensen; yes, S.D. It seems Mr. Pilot, we'll call him Peter, was having a very bad day (or late night, almost early morning). Mr. Devinjensen, heretofore known as Mr. D, was going through the paces of setting up his "freight off load operation", or FOO, when Peter came storming out of the crew door of his twin engine baby behemoth, and straight toward Mr. D.
Mr. D, always quick with a smile and a kind word, greeted Peter with his standard gratuitous salutation, "Good evening, Sir. How are you this fine evening?"
Well, you would have thought this was the match that burned down Atlanta, when Peter shot back at Sven with a gruff, "Are you in charge of this operation?!"
"Why, yes sir", replied Mr. D proudly, although a bit taken aback by this aggressive response to the most polite of introductions.
"Well, you need to get your "stuff" together", shouted the pilot. "Do you see this?", he queried as he thrust a paper printout with a lot of circles and stars, produced by the finest of ball point pens, into the chest of Mr. D. "This is the time I arrived at this gate", he spewed wildly, poking his finger at the paper, nearly gorging it in the process, spoiling the integrity of the "evidence", later to be procured by Sven (I said this guy was a pilot, not a genius). "I've been sitting here for T-W-E-N-T-Y MINUTES waiting for a stair team." "WHERE..IS..MY..STAIR TEAM?!?"
Now, searching for an adequate response to such a ridiculous question, Mr. D reflected on the work that he had been doing for his special needs son, Manfredly, and how he had been promoting a positive attitude when dealing with others, and always remaining respectful under any circumstance, when he answered, "Well, sir, when I saw you hanging out of the cockpit window waving frantically attempting to get my attention, I can only assume, I got on the radio right away and let the control tower know you needed a stair team at this gate, the furthest point away from any known civilization on the ramp, right away." "That is really all of the involvement that I have in this situation, as I have a very specific task to complete, in a very specific set of time parameters. I'm sure they will be here soon."
"Well, this is "farging" bull "snot"!!!" "I should be in my "falooting" hotel right now, sleeping!!!"
With face turning red, breathing getting shallow and hands steady, Sven looked at Peter and, thinking of Manfredly, the only possible thing to keep him from going 'Ali' on his new friend and losing his job, and hence his family, calmly replied, "I'll be happy to explain this awful situation to the appropriate manager, to ensure this never happens to another "bush" pilot, ever again."
"Well, WHO IS YOUR M-A-N-A-G-E-R???!!!???", he spewed forth with a fury that would have made Katrina look like a Girl Scout late for her cookie deadline.
"My manager is Branford McDowell, but the person we need to talk to? Yeah, that I'm not so sure about."
As he spun away on his heels, leaving smoldering rubber on the pavement of 'my...um, Mr. D's gate', leaving you with the immediate impression he thought he'd landed in Tokyo, or a high quality reproduction in Davenport, Iowa, to film the 5th installment in the Godzilla series, "Godzilla versus Peter the Bush Pilot", he turned back over his shoulder and screamed, "This is bull "short"!"
With this, Sven maturely turned away and went about his duties in a highly professional manner so that he could uphold his promise of delivering, 'The universe as quickly as humanly possible, under any given circumstance'.
The moral of this story? None of us are immune to bullying and the effects it has on others, especially children. Sven Devinjensen is a 46-year-old man who can defend himself, but so many affected by the continual harassment, and inhumane treatment they receive at the hands of these individuals, cannot. Perhaps Peter was having a very bad and will eventually reflect back, while he's washing dishes at Denny's, on the choices he made during this brief exchange. We are all accountable for our actions, and those actions have consequences. As adults to the children who continue to suffer, we need to expose the indecent behavior, the sources of this behavior and show the aggressors that without the proper response to appropriate guidance and discipline, the consequences they suffer long term will be severe as well. People deserve the best we have to give every day; children the most. Their attitudes and personalities are a direct reflection of who we are as their life mentors. Can we afford to give them less than our greatest effort? Ever? Do your part. Own your responsibility. It's time.
Share to make aware,
Scott
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