Ain't it just like a human - redux

Have you seen the Coast Guard video of the New York City plane crash?

If you haven't, pop over to YouTube and watch it. It's not hard to find and it is amazing to watch.

I have said this before, but I don't think it can be said too often. Human beings so often respond with grace in times of emergency. It gives me hope for the world to read, or in this case watch, evidence of that fact.

Of course, it is a miracle that the pilot was able to ditch the jetliner in the Hudson and that it remained intact. Most of all, it was a miracle that everyone escaped the accident alive and whole.

But it is watching the human reactions that is an amazement to me.

Within seconds after the plane came to rest, passengers streamed from the exits, climbing onto the wings. And it is plain that they were doing so in an orderly fashion and that they were helping each other.

And in under two minutes (there's a timer on the Coast Guard traffic watch camera that caught the footage) boats began to show up along side the downed plane and their crews began to pull the airplane passengers to safety.

We are at our best when we aren't thinking about ourselves, aren't we?

Ain't it just like a human

Kris Kristofferson wrote this:

The scene was a small roadside café;
The waitress was sweepin’ the floor.
Two truck drivers drinkin’ their coffee
And two Okie kids by the door.

“How much are them candies?” they asked her.
“How much have you got?” she replied.
“We’ve only a penny between us.”
“Them’s two for a penny,” she lied.

One truck driver called to the waitress,
After the kids went outside.
“Them candies ain’t two for a penny.”
“So what’s it to you?” she replied.
In silence they finished their coffee,
Got up and nodded goodbye.
She called, “Hey, you left too much money.”
“So what’s it to you?” they replied.

And the daylight grew heavy with thunder,
And the smell of the rain on the wind.
Ain’t it just like a human?
Here comes that rainbow again.

Some days, I despair when I read the headlines. Take this one, for example, from the morning edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Two women hurt in downtown parking lot brawl.

Here’s what the P.I. reporter said: “Witnesses told police a man driving a silver Honda tried to cut off the woman in the Bank of America Plaza garage. The woman started honking and pulled forward to stop him from cutting in front of her. The man then jumped out of his car, pulled the woman from her car, pushed her to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the head, according to the report.”

But right next to it was this headline: Neighbors come to rescue in raging fire that kills three.

According to the story, a fire broke out just after midnight this morning at an eight-unit apartment building in Burien, south of Seattle. Three people died in the blaze, but others were saved due to the efforts of neighbors.

One man dialed 911, grabbed a big rock and ran across the street -- shouting "Get back! Get back" – to break the glass of a sliding door. Another fellow ran from window to window, pounding and calling to people to come out. Others helped folks make their way away from the building, carrying children and supporting older residents.

Ain’t it just like a human.