According to the Bureau of Transportation, 1,730,000 people fly on commercial airliners every day in the United States. As you read this article it is likely over 500,000 people are in the air. People are moved to work, celebrate, grieve, and play. Yet, on April 10, not one video of the 1,729, 996 people who safely flew across America–those who ended up in the arms of a loved one or who closed a big deal or who were brought safely back home after serving in war–went viral.
Was a passenger mistreated? Absolutely. Was he partly responsible for his unfair treatment? Absolutely. Did you and I do everything in our power to keep this in perspective, or were we magnetized to once again watch a negative and psychologically consequential misrepresentation of reality? It is up to us to show that there is goodness, in the skies, in our classrooms, at our offices, and in each of our communities. It is up to us to make the news real.
To illustrate how we can shape the narrative and how many people are successfully moved each day on flights in the US, we are posting these two videos:
This video shows how much air traffic there is in a day. Let’s honor the fact that, while it is not always fun, flying in the U.S. is an amazingly successful daily dance.
