For years, I wanted to be a baseball player or a pilot, depending on which day, or which adult, was present in the asking of the question. The youthful exuberance of showing one had dreams and aspirations that were both long shots and worthy pursuits. The last few years, the former profession, a sports athlete, no longer serves as a worthy path; whereas the pilot, the ones standing up for their lives, showed more obvious character traits, particularly courage, under personal duress.
This may have been obvious for many years – the value of pilots over athletes – but a society needs, or desires, both the precision of pilots and their great abilities to safely get us to our destinations and sport stars to offer up great physical and mental abilities in split-second dramas on the field of human excellence. The pilot trains for thousands of hours to make snap decisions in the case of a plane being disrupted by acts of nature and man alike. They are usually unsung in their anticipations and done gladly (unacknowledged) by the public. These professionals are taught science and practice acrobatic flight maneuvers that normal people would lose their lunches over. The athlete, enhanced by a century-old media complex, grew up with a microscopic chance of ever seeing the lights of glory and the fans of worship along with a platform to discuss what bothers them about society. They too worked thousands of hours in practice and hundreds of games of preparation to achieve their positions for what generally is mere years of their lives. The pilot can do their jobs into their 60s. The athlete has ten, maybe twenty years, if an elite star, to shine. By forty, and rarely, forty-five, their competing days are over.
The comparison here is how strange life is regarding having any such platform. As even the wisdom of years did not bode well for many professional sports stars. There are a few notable exceptions: Theo Fleury, a retired, 5’6” 2-time gold-medal winning Canadian hockey player stands at the forefront of the Truckers for Freedom. Royce White, drafted by the Houston Rockets (2012) in the 1st round, has drawn more attention to his human rights positions on Uighurs, mandates, and social issues, especially over the last two years. Other examples exist – but are generally retired players (Shaq) if they choose to speak at all. The active players, aside from the NBA’s Kyrie Irving, or the NFL’s Aaron Rodgers, are nearly muted or intimidated into supporting vaccinations and other failed policies during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, many unheralded pilots came out against a host of mandates, particular the vaccines, often to derision by the media hounds. As time will tell, the vaccines may impact their abilities to fly planes – physical ailments, once rare, if nonexistent – are becoming prevalent, particularly myocarditis, and other heart and respiratory adverse events. Athletes as well have fallen sick or passed out on the field of battle, footballers overseas, the most notable here. Younger athletes are dying at an abnormal rate, post-vaccination.
One clearly sees the heroism in the average (and also deemed ordinary) persons. The semi-trucker, who drives eight hours a day, avoiding crazy car drivers, while staying aware in maneuvering a 40-ton rig is quite akin to the airline pilots flying 150 tons in a 747. Each know their risks and take them on without any great appreciation for what they do daily. The athletes are a far rarer breed. Only a chosen few among them decided it was much more valuable to stand with The People than ever with The Globalist Moneyed People: Their Bosses and Megacorporate Sponsors. I once desired to be the last pitcher on the mound in Game Seven of a World Series, winning it all, while striking out the last batter like Tug McGraw did in 1980 (Game 6). But now, the real heroes stand out in thirty below wind chills, suffer the abuses of the billionaire media, the politicians, and Davos Man. These global forces seek to humiliate the unsung masses that drive metal on the road and fly metal in the sky. BUT these transport kings are the true professionals and people we should all aspire to be.