Sully inaugural guest of honor
Five crew members from Flight 1549, including Captain Chesley B. ”Sully” Sullenberger and his family, are receiving hero's welcomes in Washington.
photo credit: RUETERS – Record 1.2 million crowd attends. Contact if you were there and want to send a photos, stories. Sully invited. President and Mrs. Obama attend ten balls. Miley Cyrus entertains.
what a week it was
It’s hard to resist metaphors. Working families, and the labor movement itself, is a lot like the story of that airplane – and that train.
Aboard US1549, a team of skilled workers set down an ailing aircraft safely, even heroically. The landing itself didn’t assure a happy ending to a perilous journey. It took more workers, working together, to get people of diverse backgrounds back on solid ground. Even the cynics have to concede a lot went right. Many of us couldn’t help feeling a renewed sense of hope, from people working together, beating difficult but not impossible odds, and talking about it for days to come.
Another dramatic journey began, on a railroad track, just days later. Enough with the metaphors, you’re thinking. It’s not that much of a stretch to say “our train,” that of working people, has been delayed for too long. Whether or not we voted for Obama, the person embodies that which many Americans desire: Hope and change. With pro-worker Secretary Of Labor Hilda Solis set to replace the dismal Elaine Chao, we stand to have government with us instead of against us. Maybe –only a maybe– our train is coming in too.
Seeing the tail of an aircraft in frigid waters makes an airline employees heart stop!
Seeing passengers standing on the wing of an aircraft in frigid waters makes your heart skip a few more beats.
Knowing the terrific job that trained professionals accomplished in an emergency makes your heart go out to all of them! –
Congratulations. Kathy Ferguson,
IAM/Employee Assistance Program,
Mid Atlantic Regional Coordinator