Like most people I got a good laugh at the way JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater went off after a difficult passenger spewed expletives in his face and another gashed his forehead while opening the overhead bin and then refused to apologize.
This abuse proved to be the last straw. Because as soon as his flight (1052 from Pittsburg) reached the gate at JKF on Monday, he reportedly commandeered the plane’s public address system and spewed forth the following:
To the passenger who just called me a motherfucker, fuck you. I’ve been in this business 28 years and I’ve had it!
(Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, August 10, 2010)
He then grabbed a beer from the galley, deployed the emergency exit slide and jumped off the plane – kissing those unruly passengers, and his career, goodbye. Which, to correct a mistaken allusion other commentators are making, is fundamentally different from saying to an abusive boss, “take this job and shove it”.
This meltdown has turned Slater into a folk hero – no doubt for venting the professional frustrations many people suffer in quiet desperation.
But it’s the revenge-of-the-flight-attendant angle that must truly resonate. For I suspect Slater’s reaction filled all flight attendants with a vicarious sense of vindication. And the rest of us are cheering because we’ve all witnessed some idiot passenger treating a flight attendant like his personal servant and wished that attendant would “accidentally” spill hot coffee in that passenger’s lap.
This is what Slater should have done if he wanted to keep his job with JetBlue, or to ever work as a flight attendant again. Instead, going beserk the way he did says far more about his mental stability than it does about the manners of the passengers who provoked him. A hero? I don’t think so….
In any case, he would be well-advised to milk his 15 minutes of (international) fame for all it’s worth. Specifically, he should demand fees for all interviews and, who knows, given the caliber and character of the stars on reality TV, he could parlay this episode into a very lucrative gig.
God knows the private life he leads with his boyfriend would probably prove far more entertaining than watching Snooki and others on the Jersey Shore get paid to act like fools.
That said, it behooves all parents hailing this guy as a hero to explain to their children that Slater’s behavior is nothing to emulate; i.e., that it was appropriate only for this one occasion.
After all, if the Supreme Court can excuse its bad ruling in Bush v. Gore 2000 by saying it’s not a precedent to ever be followed or cited, then parents can excuse Slater’s bad behavior by the same logic.
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