The secret of spontaneous leadership?

How can one confuse leadership with survival instincts triggered by fear?

When you back a dog into a corner and threaten it, it starts to growl. Is that leadership or survival instincts.

I wish I was a writer getting paid to confuse facts with fiction.

What this passenger did was save his life along with those with him. He recognized a situation that trigger a fearful situation and acted out of instinct.

THE BRILLIANT COMMANDER IN CHIEF, OBAMA

Following the model of mythic Alexander and Eisenhower, Commander in Chief Obama has developed an amazing inventive strategy :
The result of his flash of genius will be that Taliban and Al-Qaida will quietly wait eighteen months, preparing carefully their final offensive against the “Islamic> Then, Taliban and Al-Qaida (with their covert ally Iran) will be in position to launch suicide atomic attacks on their ideological foe, the USA, in order to finally establish the World Caliphate preached by the “Seal of the Prophets”, Muhammad.
But who will remain then to testify ?
***
In this respect, the worst strategic error of Commander in Chief Obama will have been that he did not make the move of implementing the urgently needed and only possible Ideology Dome Shield, which could cover and protect America from apocalyptic Islamic suicide-Attacks.
This vital Ideology Dome Shield would have been constituted by an innovating Programme (of course ignored by Obama Administration) specifically aimed at deterring most efficiently Islamic Suicide Terrorists Candidates.
***
Three categories of Motives can be discerned in this President Obama’s tragic lack of capability to lead efficiently War on ruthless Islamic Terror.

Possible Motive 1/
President Obama’s surprising total ignorance of the Koran, of Islam and of Islam History (cf. Cairo speech) ignorance which prevents Obama from perceiving that an implacable Ideology World War is at present raging.
This ignorance of Islam can be shared by many, but, nowadays, the President of the USA cannot afford it, because of the finance, energies and demography ever-growing power of Islam.
And, on a strict psycho-political point of view, because of his flagrant ignorance, Ayatollahs, Mullahs, Imams (etc.) are cunningly considering Barack Hussein Obama, either as a renegade, or as a dunce, spoilt and pretentious pupil who deserves, indeed, a severe flogging punishment to teach him the inescapable Might of True Islam.

Possible Motive 2/
Obama’s inherent populism which drives him to use conventional Vocabulary Masks, in which the World of Words replaces conveniently the World of Realities.

Possible Motive 3/
Barack Hussein Obama is playing “unconsciously” the Islamic ElBaradei-Scheme, which, slyly, allowed irresponsible Pakistan and Iran to gain control of the Atomic Bomb.

Natan
Natan is a maverick Expert on Ideology War,
and Head of Ideology-War-Observatory :
( http://ideology-war-observatory.blogspot.com )

I think Audie Murphy said that leadership in crisis is a willingness to take decisive steps for at least a second longer than your fear to take such steps.

It is a part of people's makeup--At the time of 9/11, people began streaming out of the Pentagon until somebody called for assistance for those who needed help, whereupon the tide that flowed out to avoid the crisis flowed in to help others.
Perhaps it is the very "ordinariness" of the individual which permits such actions. Of course, this is the same "ordinariness" of the peace officer on the thin blue line or the firefighter rushing in to the 100 story skyscraper. The individual saw that work was needed to be done, and they did it.

THE BRILLIANT COMMANDER IN CHIEF, OBAMA

Following the model of mythic Alexander and Eisenhower, Commander in Chief Obama has developed an amazing inventive strategy :
The result of his flash of genius will be that Taliban and Al-Qaida will quietly wait eighteen months, preparing carefully their final offensive against the “Islamic> Then, Taliban and Al-Qaida (with their covert ally Iran) will be in position to launch suicide atomic attacks on their ideological foe, the USA, in order to finally establish the World Caliphate preached by the “Seal of the Prophets”, Muhammad.
But who will remain then to testify ?
***
In this respect, the worst strategic error of Commander in Chief Obama will have been that he did not make the move of implementing the urgently needed and only possible Ideology Dome Shield, which could cover and protect America from apocalyptic Islamic suicide-Attacks.
This vital Ideology Dome Shield would have been constituted by an innovating Programme (of course ignored by Obama Administration) specifically aimed at deterring most efficiently Islamic Suicide Terrorists Candidates.
***
Three categories of Motives can be discerned in this President Obama’s tragic lack of capability to lead efficiently War on ruthless Islamic Terror.

Possible Motive 1/
President Obama’s surprising total ignorance of the Koran, of Islam and of Islam History (cf. Cairo speech) ignorance which prevents Obama from perceiving that an implacable Ideology World War is at present raging.
This ignorance of Islam can be shared by many, but, nowadays, the President of the USA cannot afford it, because of the finance, energies and demography ever-growing power of Islam.
And, on a strict psycho-political point of view, because of his flagrant ignorance, Ayatollahs, Mullahs, Imams (etc.) are cunningly considering Barack Hussein Obama, either as a renegade, or as a dunce, spoilt and pretentious pupil who deserves, indeed, a severe flogging punishment to teach him the inescapable Might of True Islam.

Possible Motive 2/
Obama’s inherent populism which drives him to use conventional Vocabulary Masks, in which the World of Words replaces conveniently the World of Realities.

Possible Motive 3/
Barack Hussein Obama is playing “unconsciously” the Islamic ElBaradei-Scheme, which, slyly, allowed irresponsible Pakistan and Iran to gain control of the Atomic Bomb.

Natan
Natan is a maverick Expert on Ideology War,
and Head of Ideology-War-Observatory :
( http://ideology-war-observatory.blogspot.com )

"Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen"

where is our leadership now?

Simple...he is not a weak liberal....he is not an affirmative action President.....he is not Obama.

Maybe President Obama or Congress can use some of that bailout money for Wall Street bonuses and give it these heroes who saved so many lives and gave Al Qaeda a giant middle finger. For once I'd like to see deserving people get rewarded.

A person who stops the terrorist by putting out a lit fuse is obeying the prime law on nature: self-defense.

"Heroism" is what the media does.

Just ask Pat Tillman.

To the authors and panel members, I disagree with your underlying premise of your article and comments. You overlook crucial facts in forming your arguments. From what I can discern from the news, the Nigerian passenger was indeed able to activate his detonator (syringe with some form of liquid) but the explosive aspect of the PETN device malfunctioned, i.e., no detonation but rather a chemically initiated combustion occurred. The other passengers only became aware and involved when the combustion ensued rather than having any role in preventing an attempted detonation. Bravery was shown by the other passengers, no doubt, but only in response to a post-event fire. Their actions in no way prevented the Nigerian passenger from accessing and using his intended detonator device. A random malfunction of the explosive device itself prevented a mass homicide. You should not try to limit the seriousness of this event, as passenger vigilance played no role in this horrific chain of events.

The Dutch film maker reacted as fast as he could perceive the danger. PALADIN7B was quite correct in noting Audie Murphy's thought that leadership in crisis is a willingness to take decisive steps for at least a second longer than your fear to take such steps.

Here the film maker literally jumped into a fire ~ or burning mass ~ to put an end to the fire as fast as he could. Having jumped into a fire myself, let me tell you, beyond your focus on the fire, and maybe pulling some people out of the way, you are probably not yet considering such things as the cause, terrorism, weltpolitik.

Still, such leadership is required. Absent that action the fire would have continued and that alone could have brought down the plane.

Once that extra second of time has passed, and you are free to assess the danger ~ in this case fire ~ the rest being left for later discovery ~ you might well hold back fearing injury.

That's when you die ~ while you are thinking about it! The others die right along with you.

Look, I know not everybody can do it. The film maker did it. 500 + NYC firemen did it on 9/11. Several thousand guys did it on D-Day, and for the first time in history, live on television Russian helicopter pilots and firefighters did it dumping concrete on the burning hole of Chernobyl.

I hope everybody caught what the guys at Chernobyl were doing ~ very impressive ~ neither OSHA nor EPA would have approved of their behavior.

And that, BTW, is one of the things you may have to overcome someday to be the hero you know yourself to be, and the hero that's needed at that instant of time. Don't think of federal bureaucrats or unhappy your mother will be when she identifies your body.

Grasp death in both hands and overcome him ~ in that brief, short instance your are given to bend time to your will.

There was a story last week in the NYTs written by Gretchen Morgenson (12/24 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1) detailing some very questionable practices at Goldman Sachs and involving Lewis A. Sachs whose company oversaw Tricadia Inc a maker and marketer of CDOs, who this year became a special counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

The story is as close to a "smoking gun" of, if not criminal then unethical acts of such magnitude that they demand censure and professional banishment at the very least. And definitely not the reward and status of sitting at the right hand of the man most responsible for how the fallout from the fraud of all time plays out.

The comments from readers about the facts of the story included this:

"It is unbelievable to me that we are not rioting in the streets!

Repeated letters, e-mails, and calls to Congressional "representatives" have not worked. Tame Tea Parties have not worked. The U.S. government has not gotten the message that we, the people, are beyond angry.

"There should be bedlam, chaos, in the streets."

In the face of such a huge and blatant fraud (makes Madoff's Ponzi scheme a liquor store holdup by comparison) we sit by and do nothing though we have been harmed to such a staggering degree and so profoundly that Nobel Prize winning economists still can't wrap their heads around what occurred or its full ramifications for the future.

The element of character, the ability to recognize threat or the equation of risk and reward that is calculated so quickly in our minds that we don't perceive it having occurred that—what ever it is that determines if and how we act in response to threat—has to be informed in a meaningful way if and how we react to this larger threat to not just investors and not just the US economy but indeed the entire world's economy.

Our passivity in the face of existential threat may be a characteristic we've inherited from ancestors fleeing non-stop violent upheavals brought on by religious and political—one and the same—competition in Europe for more than a thousand years.

Leaders are born, not made. There are four essential elements that have to be present in order for the "grit" of true leadership to surface: courage, calm, creativity, and compassion. The passengers and crew of that flight were fortunate to have leaders among them.

I agree that Jasper's reaction was one of survival.

I must add that he is hot.

Jasper, that marvelous Dutchman had a survival instinct that is lacking in President Obama.
OBAMA, YOU HAVE BEEN TESTED AND FOUND WANTING. I DO NOT FEEL SAFE WITH YOU AS PRESIDENT. IN THE NAME OF GOD, RESIGN!

We should look at things in perspective (relativity as per Einstein). So to see the Dutchman as a hero also describe the cowardness of the guy sitting right next to the potential killer. What was his name, what about the other 298 people, especially the stewards and stewardesses. I assume they were all relatives of Obama.

What is this nonsense? Note that Jasper is Dutch. The Dutch are fed up with the miserable little cockroach muslims living among them. He was primed by his loathing of these sub-human creatures to pounce on one at the first hint that anything was amiss. I hope that I can do the same some day. Not to be a hero, but to release the pent up rage that seethes in me towards the walking crap called muslims.

A hero reacts instinctively and often at great risk to him or her self to a life threatening situation. Jasper is a hero. Now, what CNN and all other discussion boards really need is a filter that eliminates all comments posted containing the word Obama to any discussion topic not directly related to President Obama. What is with you people? How can you be so hate-filled that even a discussion of one man's heroism prompts you to vomit up your anti-Obama nonsense?

A hero reacts instinctively and often at great risk to him or her self to a life threatening situation. Jasper is a hero. Now, what CNN and all other discussion boards really need is a filter that eliminates all comments posted containing the word Obama to any discussion topic not directly related to President Obama. What is with you people? How can you be so hate-filled that even a discussion of one man's heroism prompts you to vomit up your anti-Obama nonsense?

“There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men,out of necessity, are forced by circumstance to meet.”--Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, USN.

I think it's incorrect to call those who didn't respond to the emergency "ordinary" people. They are simply people who haven't learned how to respond to input.

In our society we seldom have to deal with events that are out of the norm. At one time, Americans had to be self-sufficient and to react to all kinds of events. However, how many of us will ever have to react, or even practice reacting, to an in-flight emergency? In fact, how many of us are taught to stay out of the way of trained responders and crews?

Even first responders have to be trained to react to stimuli. I would be interested to know what Schuringa's background and expereiences are.

I also blame our society which hawks fear at every turn. Passengers are already wired for fear instead of being told they hold their own safety in their hands. People who believe they can make a difference react differently from those who think they are victims.

Thank you, nashvillemykl. I don't understand what is wrong with some of these posters. Either stick to the topic or surf on over to Free Republic and bash Obama to your heart's content.

Obviously the government cannot get proper security right, however, Americans can and do. Let's get our government out of our business so that the United States can get on with business as usual. I was happy to read the other day that regulations for the air marshals will be relaxed a bit so that they can use their gut feelings and intuition.

Quote form arancia12 :

I think it's incorrect to call those who didn't respond to the emergency "ordinary" people. They are simply people who haven't learned how to respond to input.

In our society we seldom have to deal with events that are out of the norm. At one time, Americans had to be self-sufficient and to react to all kinds of events. However, how many of us will ever have to react, or even practice reacting, to an in-flight emergency? In fact, how many of us are taught to stay out of the way of trained responders and crews?

Even first responders have to be trained to react to stimuli. I would be interested to know what Schuringa's background and expereiences are.

I also blame our society which hawks fear at every turn. Passengers are already wired for fear instead of being told they hold their own safety in their hands. People who believe they can make a difference react differently from those who think they are victims.

------------------------------------
While BF Skinner reaction principles work in many circumstances, they don't always work ideally.

Is there a response to an "emergency input"? Normally responses apply to traditional stimuli, but you can't train for all eventualities.

When you hear public safety officials state that it is safe to stay in a non-burning tower, is it the right input to follow their lead, even if you are almost out of a building. 2000 people did not and survived, hundreds did and died. Do you react to an hijacking on the airplane by doing and nothing and waiting for first responders on the ground to respond (bad answer on 9/11) or do you take action into your own hands (optimal answer on Flight 93, plane passengers died, ground population saved).

It takes about 10 minutes from official recognition of a problem to the beginning of an effective response. What if a response is needed sooner.

Humans are wired in an interesting manner. A small number will freeze, and do nothing, a large number will attempt to make sense of the environmental problem, and may or may not have a good ending (Rhode Island club fire, for example). A small remainder will take some action immediately.

BTW, I was taught to comply with the orders of first responders, not necessarily to get out of the way. (Not a good response if a chemical spill or biological hazard).

All politics aside, the Dutchman's response was a natural reaction to a crisis: flight or fight. He chose the latter. This has nothing to do with Obama, Muslims living in the Netherlands, or leadership qualities (he lead an army of one). One question: the airport policies and practices now under attack (which have always been the illusion of security) have been in place for many, many years. Why is no-one pointing this out?

What prompts one passenger, like Jasper Schuringa, to take heroic action when others sit by?

answer: pure and total panic.

As jdeluuiver above said it wasnt' leadership ( he wasn't leading anyone)

H

fr adrienne:

>...Not to be a hero, but to release the pent up rage that seethes in me towards the walking crap called muslims...

One of my co-workers is a Muslim, and a VERY nice person.

Grow UP and get a life.

It takes courage of a unusual commitment to the wellbeing of ones fellow human beings, I applaud his heroism in this time of danger. I can hope the President himself shows the proper accolades to this ( now ) distinguished person. I do believe anyone can have this courage, as witnessed now on many an occassion, but understanding an seeing it remains a key obstacle for most. For standing above the crowd and doing what needed to be done I have to say Thank You
Peace

The hero didn't want to die without a fight.

We should be careful not to confuse leadership and heroism. The passenger was indeed heroic, willing to place himself in even more immediate danger to bring about a better end than if he did nothing.
Heroism, I believe, requires:
1. action
2. a sense of responsibility
3. confidence in a better outcome even against great odds/optimism
4. mental preparation/most who take heroic actions have at some point imagined themselves doing so

It's so tiresome to read the garbage.

C'mon!:

You think Hans Brinker is gonna let some little misguided Zwarte Piet with his knickerbockers on fire ruin Christmas for everyone?!!!

...That's how the Dutch roll.

This young man did us all such a service! Who is to say that without his intervention, the terrorist might have been successful in detonating the bomb? His instincts were heroic, and he may have saved a lot of lives. This fine young man deserves a Presidential or Congressional award for this valorous act.

Jasper valued his life. He wanted to live. He did more to foil a terrorist attack than our multi-billion dollar TSA and Homeland Security, staffed by all its deadbeat careerists and unemployables. These agencies had been warned by Britain's MI5 that this wingnut ought to be watched and detained. The TSA and HS don't value human life -- just "national security." I get the impression that they and their uniformed minions in the airports just relish putting Americans through the search and sieze grinder; they are perfect employees for totalitarianism. So, knock back a few toasts to Jasper. He got it right. Our "protectors" didn't.

America should honor Jasper Schuringa with the highest civilian honor of the country - Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is a truly deserving person for the honor. He compensated for what the Dutch authorities at Amsterdam airport failed to do.

Some men are leaders and others are followers. One day a situation will occur where you will either rise to the occasion or you will seek cover and wait for someone else, a leader, to do your work for you!

We are born to lead or we learn to follow.

Yaah!!"Dutch COURAGE"... for SURE!

Thank you to the previous poster who noted that, despite what many want to blame on TSA or HS, the would-be terrorist boarded the plane in a foreign country, where TSA has no authority even though it is an American airline. There are not TSA agents at the airport in Amsterdam. Whatever you think about TSA's shortcomings on a tactical level, and whatever you think about Homeland Security or any other government agency's shortcomings on a strategic level, the failure to detect this person's explosives falls squarely on the shoulders of the security apparatus in Amsterdam.

We are each born with a unique set of abilities that when properly nurtured can grow and develop.Leadership is one of these abilities when combined with courage,unselfishness, and servant-hood, a spontaneous leader can emerge. I believe there are many leaders who do not possess these qualities and would not be able to "rise to the occasion." The influence that Mr. Schuringa had to exercise was immediate and I would respectfully suggest a combination of the aforementioned qualities and divine intervention.

He did what needed to be done at the time. The "Let's roll" folks taught a valuable lesson. If it happens, the passengers have to take action or be slaughtered. Sorry, but when I fly, I do my own personal profile on those around me and as far up and down the length of the plane as possible. I suspect I'm not the only one. I pay attention to what's going on. It's the best way, and all passengers that climb aboard these flying tubes better do the same. If you're going to be slaughtered anyway, you may as well try to stop it. Free lance solutions are the best it would seem.

Meanwhile, don't look for politicians and other "leaders" who write the rules to set up the proper defenses for us to travel under. They're engaged in delusion, not reality.

Fact is, if the religion of peace was properly scrutinized in airports, we'd at least be covering the group that has a history of committing these acts. Since politicians, who rarely fly commercial in any case, refuse to protect us from these monsters and then destroy the countries from which these murderers spring, free-lance action by individuals in the event of attack IS our only defense.

COMMON SENSE

He was trying to save himself. And others.

Y'know -- Adam Smith -- 'invisible hand?'

Versus Big Government know everything?

On the railroad, I witnessed a crossing fatality from the fireman's seat of a Diesel Locomotive. A man panicked, frozen with fear, was on the tracks before us. As my mind screamed, "move you idiot" we hit him sounding like a small explosion. As I jumped up from the chair to run out onto the front platform of the locomotive, the engineer casually said, "Sit down kid, that one is a goner".

Having grown up with policemen, fireman and other ordinary citizens having the right stuff I know certain people have an innate quality to protect their fellow citizens and properties. And that, there is some kind of innate propensity to overcome fear in the character of these individuals.

There must first be a willingness to overcome fear, especially in the moment, by these people. I don't know if facing fears can be taught without an innate ability to run into the eye of a hurricane. Fear would hold some back, causing a few to run away from danger. Some people just naturally say and mean "I got your back". Perhaps the honest hero would claim, "I don't know why I did it, I just did it". Society does have a duty to Honor our heroes if only for 15 minutes of fame if heroes are indeed willing to be exposed to fame.

We call this leadership intelligences--the plural, because there are five (5) intelligences. Leaders deploy one or more depending on context. The intelligences can certainly be taught--we have been doing this for some time--and now have online instruction too at www.vivekingroup.com. The gang-rape of a school girl in California where dozens of witnesses did nothing is in stark contrast to the airplane incident--in fact, the rape incident made us adopt a radical pricing policy--our clients now pay us what THEY think our services are worth to them, and we're able to reach many more people. I hope soon we can make leadership intelligences training mandatory in schools and colleges, especially "ethical leadership intelligence."

Truth hurts,

What I learned is that in a instant were there is no time to reason, actions almost become like a dream and only after, do we realize the implications of what we did. Experience and then training take over. As I said before,don't shake until you completed the task.

The hardest part for those responding, is the time in which they have to think about
what they are heading into.In my experience I never saw the same situation twice.

Mission accomplished Mom , On Guard.

Quick thinking, yes. Courage, yes. Leadership, no. Sadly, "leadership" has become such a popular buzzword ("hero" being another) that it is applied to all manner of activities and qualities that don't involve leading others. Let's give these people who perform _individual_ acts of bravery and service appropriate honors, but let's get the terminology right.

Quick Thinking. Nothing More. He saw an opening, had the confidence to act, and did so. Has nothing to do with leadership, courage, moral values, training, or any of the other "conceptual" or "philosophical" talking head rationales. He simply seized an opportunity. Happens everyday to many people, but most of the time not as dramatic or newsworthy. Same motivation makes great running backs or produces people like Bill Gates.

Courage is having the will to do something you fear. He didn't wait long enough to develop fear, he acted without it.

There are some perfect examples today of "if you have nothing to say, say nothing" which is why quite a few would rather talk about Obama than the subject (IN BIG PRINT AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE).

i'm surprised the passenger-hero was not immediately arrested because he did not proxy his personal security over to uniformed public safety personel or government officials.

effectively exacerbating the humiliation of a billion dollar security industry invites unwanted attention from creepy cops.

The odds of anyone confronting a situation like this is almost nil. The consequences for guessing wrong by taking action are enormously severe - probably worse than death. That is why no one does anything.

Major Hasan going postal, Virginia Tech massacre, etc. did not surprise folks familiar with the shooters. If anyone had taken action, they would just have been ostracized. And for what. Saving someone else's life?

There was a horrific rail accident in Germany on June 3, 1998 near the village of Eschede with 101 dead. One train wheel failed, a two part wheel, the outer rim separated. (This two part wheel design has never worked in the train world.)

Part of the rim punctured a passenger coach, and no one did anything.

"What followed was a chain of events that unfolded within minutes yet took investigators months to piece together. The tire embedded in the rail car was seen by Jörg Dittmann, one of the passengers in Coach 1. The tire went through an armrest between where his wife and son sat. Dittmann took his wife and son out of the damaged coach and went to inform a conductor in the third coach. The conductor, who noticed vibrations in the train, told Dittmann that company policy required him to investigate the circumstances before pulling the emergency brake. The conductor took one minute to go to the site in Coach 1. Dittmann said that by then the train began to sway from side to side; Dittmann said that the conductor did not show a willingness to immediately stop the train at that point; according to Dittmann the conductor wished to further investigate the incident. Dittmann said that the crash occurred just when he was about to pinpoint the armrest puncture to the conductor."

So a steel tire rim that could easily have killed Jörg Dittmann, his wife or son, wasn't enough for anyone to pull the emergency brake.

WMBOYD ~ it is an error to think that exemplary conduct is simply a result of having the opportunity to act.

It's like job evaluation time ~ you sit down with the boss after having worked your tail off all year while your fellows in the division sat there like drones playing the internet all day.

He tells you "well Billybob, you did a great job, but that's because your part of the program was highlighted this year. We are dividing the bonus up equally."

Obviously your boss doesn't get it. You will meet him in the parking lot later~

Trick is not everyone is going to react ~ some because they intuit that they'd best stay out the way! Then there are those who always seek the narrowest advantage, and they don't want to get hurt at that moment ~ they'd rather die than put forth the slightest effort on behalf of others.

Some of us walk into the fire and some of us don't. If you haven't got it you don't. If you've got it you walk in and come back out having accomplished something.

Although my situation wasn't nearly as dramatic, it just involved knocking down a criminal who had pulled a gun and then charged two cops knocking them down. As he was running away, I just jumped in front of him and knocked him down and by that time, the cops were up and holding him down. For me, it was strange, everything just sort of slowed down and I was really calm and relaxed and I just knocked the guy down. I didn't think about the gun or anything--it was sort of like I could only think about knocking the guy down and that was all I was fcoused on. I know that it probably all happened in less than 30 seconds, but it really seemed like it was ten or 15 minutes.
So, I don't know what happened. I know that I am a naturally calm person, so that may have helped. I know I had loved ones with me, so protecting them may have been a motivation, but to this day, I still don't know exactly what happened.

The Western world has generally become to passive because of their tv-sets and IPods. They register live passively, even though it may lead to their own destruction. WE must go back to a culture whereby people take initiatives.

He was willing to assume responsibility. That is an underlying mindset that can propel people to happiness and accomplishment.
Too many people are passive and have their hand out.

Hmmmm. Let's see..............

If I fly who do I want sitting next to me?

Jasper Schuringa or barack obama?

Jasper any day!!!

He didn't wait for 3 days (while continuing to play golf) before he addressed the situation.

For this particular event I take the man at his word. I remember once being attacked in the Paris subway. A guy grabbed me around the ankles while his partner tried to lift my wallet. Without thinking I leaned forward and shoved back hard on the first guy. Fortunately this made it harder for the other one to reach his target. They quickly gave up and we were on our way. It was over in seconds. I never do stuff like that, and I would never do it again if I had time to think about it! My wallet was not worth the risk of being slugged or stabbed. Sometimes you just do things.

Mr. Schuringa is a shining example of what we don't want in this country. The courageous, the heroic, the simply motivated are a direct threat to the status quo!
What in the world would our government do if the people were to shake off their apathy- turned off the television, put down the potato chips- and say, "Hey! Enough already!"?
How the mega corporations would shudder if the people were to rise up and say, "No. You're not charging me that much, and you're not getting a hand out for mismanaging your business!"!
I'm surprised this man hasn't been charged with something and quietly hauled away. I'm astounded that the TSA hasn't outright denounced this sort of behavior and published new rules forbidding action on the part of common citizens.
Hats off, Mr. Schuringa, and thanks for setting the example for the People of the United States. Beware, though- I'm sure there are a lot of little men with suits who're slightly frightened...

The fat never-was-jock watching a game and second guessing the winningest coach in the games history comes to mind . Americans are spectators and sheep to be tended and herded . Fewer than 1 in ten are veterans of military service . Government wants you to be passive so you don't turn on them .

For this particular event I take the man at his word. I remember once being attacked in the Paris subway. A guy grabbed me around the ankles while his partner tried to lift my wallet. Without thinking I leaned forward and shoved back hard on the first guy. Fortunately this made it harder for the other one to reach his target. They quickly gave up and we were on our way. It was over in seconds. I never do stuff like that, and I would never do it again if I had time to think about it! My wallet was not worth the risk of being slugged or stabbed. Sometimes you just do things.