Two sides to every story, potato-potatoe...everyone views the world a little differently. But, as with partisan politics, it's rarely gray. It's black. Or, it's white. Blue or Red.
Take for instance the writer of a story on traditional school start entitled "How the Tourism Industry Dictates when Kids in 14 States Go Back to School" that paints a dismal picture of those States that have returned to a post-Labor Day (or close) school start. That is, until the very last sentence where the writer concedes that Virginia, which mandates a traditional school start, has the third highest student test scores in the nation.
Had I been the headline writer, it would have read "36 States that Use the Fear of Low Test Scores as a Rationale to Start School in August are Clueless."
It's all in the lens, baby.
And, after yesterday's return to Air Laws, I had to laugh when reading last week's story about the onboard fight between two passengers over what was clearly outlined in the very first Air Law: No reclining.
If you missed the story, a passenger wanted to recline her seat during a Newark to Denver flight. The guy behind her wanted to use his laptop. Those two concepts are, of course, mutually exclusive in steerage.
He employed a nifty little gadget called the "Knee Defender" that prevented her from reclining. She got up and threw a glass of soda on him (and his laptop). After a heated shouting match between the combatants and flight attendants, the pilots diverted to ORD where the two were escorted off the plane.
The writer of the AP story is either unaware of Air Law 1 and/or believes humans have a God-given right to recline. Because the writer clearly took her side, saying she had been denied her "bit of personal space."
Huh? How is that possible?
We all start with X amount of personal space with our seats and tray tables in their upright and locked position. The minute one person reclines, they take personal space away from the person behind them. There is simply no way this can be viewed as having any other outcome.
Unless you, like the writer and the hurler of soda, are sensationally self-absorbed.
I'm telling you...if everyone would just follow the 18 Air Laws, what a Wonderful World it would be.
Maybe the writer of the reclining seat article should enjoy his/her next flight with someone's bare feet intruding on their ever expanding personal space...ahhhh, poetic justice.
And yes, you are dead on that the article on school start comes from the wrong point of view. Our school district has historically started later than all other in our county and is the only one that consistently has the highest rated at the top of our state rankings. And if you haven't guessed it...the schools starting the earliest are at or near the bottom.
Posted by: LT | September 03, 2014 at 13:27
Before we passed the law in Wisconsin, all of the school districts that started classes after Labor Day had test scores at or above the State average. But, fewer days in the classroom before testing SOUNDS like a bad thing…and the District Administrators are all too happy to play the innuendo card.
Posted by: Bill Geist | September 03, 2014 at 15:40