Editor’s note: In 2013, I met Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger — the “Miracle on the Hudson Pilot” — at an air show in Truckee. This weekend Sullenberger writes in The New York Times: “Like Joe Biden, I once stuttered, too. I dare you to mock me.” The retired pilot is responding to recent comments from the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on the way the former vice president talks. This paragraph sums up Sullenberger’s thoughts:
“You are fine, just as you are. You can do any job you dream of when you grow up. You can be a pilot who lands your plane on a river and helps save lives, or a president who treats people with respect, rather than making fun of them. You can become a teacher to kids who stutter. A speech disorder is a lot easier to treat than a character defect. You become a true leader, not because of how you speak, but because of what you have to say — and the challenges you have overcome to help others. Ignore kids (and adults) who are mean, or don’t know what it feels like to stutter. Respond by showing them how to be kind, polite, respectful and generous, to be brave enough to try big things, even though you are not perfect.”
The rest of his comments are here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 