Today, I read of an 80 year-old woman who piloted a small plane to a safe landing after her 81 year-old pilot husband suffered a heart attack and died. This story is amazing in so many ways.
Here is a couple who are in their eighties and fly together. At an age when so many folks are fighting to keep their driving privileges, they are traveling around in a small plane.
The bravery and skill it must have taken the woman to land that plane while her husband lay dead next to her is amazing. I couldn’t have landed it at all, let alone under those conditions. I would love to meet that lady. She is my hero.
For the husband, what a way to go—doing something he must have loved. I hope to be doing something that I love that much when I am at that age.
Of course, there is the (very large) downside of the story. The possibilities of what could have happened without the assistance of another pilot who guided the woman in landing, and what would have happened if the pilot had died with no one else in the plane. This seems ripe for a made-for t.v. movie.
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Then there is the ongoing saga of the Republican Presidential nomination race. It looks as though Romney is all but guaranteed to be the GOP nominee. Those poor tea-party folks will be facing a huge dilemma in the fall Presidential election:
-Vote for a Republican who is Mormon, and Caucasian, or
-Vote for a Democrat who is Christian, and Black .
Which is less unAmerican, less scary to these folks? Mormon or Black?
There might be a lot of praying going on that last week of October…….
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On a related note, have you seen all of the recent television commercials sponsored by the Mormon church?
You know the ones I am talking about. The videos portray an upper middle class person, just a regular person who you might meet in your neighborhood grocery store and think nothing of it. Many of the ads portray folks who have done some extraordinarily good things in their community. The tone of the ads are very reassuring, and appear to want to prove that the members of the Mormon Church are not polygamist cult members who practice virgin sacrifice.
They are just regular folks. Just like Christians. But they are Mormons.
Do you think these are at all related to the Nov. election? Me, too.
This idea could work for other nonChristian religions as well. Just buy up a ton of ad time in prime time and sell yourselves to the Christian majority. “I am a family man, and I am a Muslim. I am not a terrorist.” Or, “I love my country and I am an atheist”.
Selling the followers of a religion as just another product on the market might alleviate some of the misunderstanding and fear of these folks among the general public. If it works for the Mormons, it could work for the others.
And the jingles could be interesting.
Just My Life 
Yeas, we are in for some interesting political persuading. If you want to learn about Mormons check out Cognitive Dissenter http://cognitivedissenter.com/
and her links to other, mostly ex, Mormon blogs. It is entertaining and eye-opening!
By: Jon on April 3, 2012
at 9:12 pm
Personally, I find those Mormon commercials extremely annoying. They don’t tell anything about what a Mormon believes, and sometimes they air so much it feels like it’s being crammed down my throat.
If they start running commercials for all religions (Christianity included) that’s all the incentive I need to get rid of my TV.
By: jannatwrites on April 3, 2012
at 10:58 pm
I remember the LDS commercials even from my childhood, ‘tho I imagine there’s a whole new campaign now thanks to Romney. No matter the era, they are pukey. Have you read UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN by Jon Krakauer?
And that woman landing the plane? KICKASS. In a weird way, it took me back to the scene in Gary Paulson’s HATCHET where the boy lands the plane when the pilot dies. That’s certainly an occasion in which one discovers one’s grit.
By: Jocelyn on April 3, 2012
at 11:48 pm
Oh dear. If I had to star in one of those commercials, I’d just be there shuffling my feet, and at the end I’d have to say, “well, I got nothing.”
Meanwhile, did I really hear Rick Santorum today say he provided a clear color contrast with Obama?
By: murr brewster on April 4, 2012
at 2:58 am
I haven’t seen this. I gave up television years ago — most of it is crap. Netflix is cheaper and I don’t have to put up with countless commercials and what passes for entertainment. I get my news online avoiding all the Fox News crap and rely on YouTube to provide fodder for my Bill Maher addiction.
As to Election 2012, I’m signed on with Obama’s campaign and will be volunteering as soon as the doc says I can drive again.
By: kaydennison on April 4, 2012
at 12:05 pm
Mormons most definitely consider themselves Christians. An odd branch, to be sure, but Christian.
But I’m so, so, so tired of the whole “Politicians must be Christian” thing anyway. This is not a frigging theocracy.
By: Secret Agent Woman on April 5, 2012
at 7:16 pm
Every year it seems we get closer and closer to our Puritanical roots. I shudder to think of what comes next…
Pearl
By: Pearl on April 6, 2012
at 10:22 am
The Mormons also play the “oppressed people” card when faced with criticism, often attempting to imply a parallel with anti-semitism. My wife was born in Moab Utah, as was her father, neither were Mormons. Yet my wife’s aunts and uncles were slowly converted to Mormonism by their children who were “friendeshipped” (a documented Mormon term) into the church.
Utah is predominantly Republican. My wife’s aunt, Jean Westwood, was the first female chairperson of the Democratic National Committee and worked on the the campaign of George McGovern. She eventually became Mormon and changed party affiliation.
Many people are surprised to know that public schools in Utah have two libraries; one of them a “Mormon Library”. Watch TV when visiting Utah as we have (to visit the wife’s relatives” there is even Mormon News portions of the local TV news.
I recall that when John Kennedy was running for office there were concerns about his being Catholic. But Catholics make up a majority of the Christian religious sect in this country versus only about 2% Mormon. But internally their church stresses leadership in it’s members and encourages them to become involved in government yet always presenting a very wholesome outward image.
Also, I couldn’t help but notice that the article you linked to, like all articles about the Mormon church, intentionally fail to mention some of the crazy beliefs underpinning the Mormon church; like that Jesus appeared in the US, that the native Americans here are the descendents of the Lost Tribes of Israel, that Mary was not a virgin but impregnated by Elohim, and they are currently on a huge public relations campaign to backpedal on the prohibition they had, until recently, on allowing black people to be members of the church.
Short story, yes you can expect the Mormon church to put it’s full weight and influence behind Mitt Romney to the same extent they used their influence to defeat the gay marriage law in California. And with the recent Supreme Court ruling opening the floodgates of unlimited money into PACs… it’s going to be a very interesting election year.
By: Robert the Skeptic on April 6, 2012
at 1:18 pm