Last week a Marine fighter crashed into a residential neighborhood killing three generations of a Korean family. Before the fires were put out people began to wonder why he ejected from the jet and why he didn’t steer it elsewhere to a place it wouldn’t have caused such damage. Be careful about that. Unless you have been in that situation you can’t fully judge the pilot. And if you have been in that situation you will not judge the pilot because you know the difficulty of the situation. (that is not to say you will not have an opinion on what the pilot might have done or what you would have done). (I comment with certainty on this subject because I have been a pilot in a severely damaged helicopter after it continued to fly after impacting the ground in excess of 100 mph.) There were plenty of opinions on what was going on in my cockpit by people who were not in a position to offer one and many passed judgment. I learned from this.

We also read of the Illinois governor and wonder how he could possibly be so stupid and make such an error. (I do have an opinion on this but I can’t fully judge him because I have not been in that situation).

Today, Jeff Fischer the head coach of the Tennessee Titans elected to “go for it” on fourth down late in the game rather than kick a potential game winning field goal – and people second guess him for it. Again, I have an opinion on this but I can’t fully judge him for this decision. Former Steeler coach Bill Cowher said Fischer should have kicked. Well, Cowher is certainly more qualified than me to offer an opinion on this situation (and as a TV analyst he is paid to have an opinion) but he wasn’t on the sidelines so he can’t fully know the situation in that moment (as we don’t know what was going on in the cockpit nor were we in the jet).

So, next time you feel the need to judge someone for some act or behavior you might reconsider before you do. What value will you add to the situation? And would you want that done to you?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 3:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.