Superhero to the rescue

Dean Rutz Seattle Times

Just when you don’t believe in the power of the human spirit and that there really are lots of good-hearted people out there in this world, along comes some “happy” news.

Hundreds of volunteers came together to put on one of the most elaborate Make-A-Wish Foundation‘s wishes ever. In Seattle a little boy, about the same age as my sons, got to save a whole lot of people in his capacity as a superhero and it gave him “the best day of my life.”

Spiderman, the Seattle Sounders, the Seattle Police Department and the Puget Sound Electric Company all contributed to this fantastic wish. You really have to read the whole story, a lot of people with a lot of heart made a wonderful day for a little boy.

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Is it just me?

As I sat in the doctor’s waiting room this afternoon, it was tuned to CNN and all the talk was the terrorist suspect that was taken off the plane headed to Dubai. The whole conversation and discussion centered around the fact that a few months ago this person became a citizen. There was outrage and concern that we aren’t screening our citizen-hopefuls carefully enough, yada-yada-yada.

Is it only me or is the more pressing and concerning question the fact that this person was listed on the “no fly” list and yet he somehow managed to get on the plane anyway. Remember, the news stories were very clear that the plane was leaving the gate when it was recalled and he was removed from the plane.

Hello? Doesn’t the “no-fly” list mean exactly that? How in the world did he manage to get through security and on the plane? Seriously, I am sure that there were at least two other passengers on that plane that were probably close to stripped down naked and tormented by TSA security protocols in order to get onto that plane and this guy- who intended to blow a sizeable chunk of Manhattan and its residents, visitors and tourists to kingdom-come, was allowed to get on the plane.

As you can probably tell, I am disturbed by this. I am disturbed by the news coverage – the smoke screen that the media is pulling to cover the “naturalization process” angle. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about making sure that potential terrorist suspects are not permitted to board aircraft?

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