REQUIEM FOR WHITNEY

Valley of the Dolls Redux- Requiem for Whitney

In witnessing the mystical music tour of Whitney Houston’s going home ceremony, I
was struck by the overflowing pews of show business stars brightly shining in
the New Hope Baptist Church. Some of the most successful entertainers in world showed up to be a part of the last rights for music diva, Whitney Houston, who died mysteriously and tragically in her Beverly Hills hotel bathroom just twenty-four hours before the Grammy Awards
were to commence.

As is customary in the arts, the music and song that were shared with us during
the funeral service elevated our senses to higher emotional levels, heaping greater sadness upon us as we underwent our inexorable shift from who Whitney was for us in recent years to reflection upon the extraordinary vocal talent that she was during her career. We are inspired to reflect on Whitney’s meteoric ascent from teenaged prodigy singing gospel songs at New Hope Baptist in Newark, N.J, to super star protégé of music mogul, Clive Davis.

Juxtaposed to her music and acting fame are the dominant images of a troubled mega-star,
sporadically sinking, drowning in the morass of insecurities, of an unimaginable
unmanageable love relationship with former husband, singer Bobby Brown and a
fantasy existence bogged down in a lifestyle of drug and alcohol addiction. One is left wondering: What Happened to her life? As a child of God, what happened to her?

In pondering these questions as I observed her super star of yesteryear cousin, Dionne
Warwick, tenaciously presiding over the funeral program flow, my mind flashed
back to the moving 1968 cinema hit, “Valley of the Dolls,” in which Dionne sang the theme song for “Valley of the Dolls.” How ironic that forty-four years later that life of fame, stardom and
disconnection from one’s self, about which cousin Dionne sang, seemed the life-imitating-art
world we viewed through the window of Whitney’s real life these past twenty years.

As is the case with too many artists, loaded with unmanageable sensitivity and
artistic talent, the clarity and passion through which they experience life is
often an unbearable burden where exaggerated reactions and substance excesses
become the escape vehicle.

Yes, Sister Whitney may have had a fighter pilot intensity toward living her life as that
humble childhood in Newark metamorphosed into an inexplicable albatross of
insecurity generating from an enigmatic place. Her life in a speedier lane accelerated to a warp mania when she crossed romance paths with Bobby Brown where a mind blowing intimacy overloaded the emotional circuitry, leading deeper into the unreality of show business swirl, fogged in by drugs and alcohol. The bleacher aficionados want to blame Bobby, but he seems merely a willing accomplice, grateful for being invited to share the bed of the exquisite beauty queen that was Whitney, happily disposed to full throttle perpetuation of the daze of confusion.

Paradoxically, the necessary marriage dissolution from Bobby left Whitney in a place where
many of us have not found timely answers- alone and unsupervised. Reeling in blurred vision, caught in an auto-pilot lifestyle of deleterious medicating, Whitney sought familial balm
bonding with her daughter, Booby Kristina, all the while swirling and dancing her way
unaware into to the doom of her own Valley of the Dolls. We pray that rumors of baby Kristina slipping off the edge into her own private maelstrom are not founded.

Wish it were that Whitney’s relationship with God could have secured a livable peace for her.
Sadly, it appears in the final analysis, like the late pop star, Michael Jackson, she could not count on her closest entourage of aides, family and medical support to save her from herself. How could Cousin Dionne have known over forty years ago that she was singing the ironically prophetic lyrics in “Valley of the Dolls” for her “Nippie” Whitney. What we are left to ponder are those final lyrical lines whose answers desert us and leave us blinking tears soaked in the
echoing questions: “Tell me, when will I know, how will I know, when will I know why?”

The author is Brian H. Settles, an Adjunct professor at Mercer University, public speaker,
former airline pilot, Vietnam combat pilot and author of a next generation
combat pilot story that stands on the shoulders of the “RED TAILS”: No
Reason for Dying: A Reluctant Combat Pilot’s Confession of Hypocrisy,
Infidelity and War WWW.BRIANHSETTLES.COM WWW.CAPTBRIANSETTLES.COM

WASTING THE BLOOD OF OUR WAR HEROES

Stop Patronizing Our War Veterans

Memorial Day is always a solemn, contemplative experience for me and I am present to my lingering resentment that the blood of our heroes has been squandered by those who choose to send our sons and daughters into questionable wars under the guise of Fighting for Freedom or building democracies. For those of you who may be combat veterans, the bond of sacrifice and suffering that is shared by soldiers is understood. This past Sunday, while viewing the CBS 60 Minute special on Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the pain of anguish was overwhelming as I listened to Sgt. Giunta share how much he abhors the attention given to him for his heroic display of bravery in attempting to rescue a fellow unit soldier from the hands of Taliban resistors. Sgt. Giunta was emphatic: " I am not a hero; I am an average, mediocre soldier. There are many others who are braver and better soldiers than I." This candor on the part of Giunta helps understand his annoyance with the plethora of ceremonies acknowledging his combat heroics. He says that the exaggerated ceremonies singling him out are embarrassing and demeaning because he knows that often the organizers of such gatherings are vicariously feeding off of his anguish for their own aggrandizement.

American society over-learned its lessons in how we treated the returning veterans from Vietnam. Today, no one wants to be guilty of withholding the highest praise for the service and sacrifice of our combat vets who serve in Afghanistan and Iraq. The greatest insult to these incredibly dedicated combat soldiers is to squander their blood in questionable military campaigns that have no definition for Victory or the time for exit. They serve because they are dedicated to their duty to serve in spite of the madness of government policies that sent them to die pretending the sacrifice and dying was to keep America Free or spreading democracy. Our leaders cajole us with these pseudo rationalizations designed to facilitate our swallowing of the sacrifice of our sons and daughters. We Americans should expend less time with punch and cookies ceremonies lauding the sacrifice of our committed, patriotic heroes and more time issuing screams of outrage to our politicians for sending our soldiers into unwinnable, ill-defined wars. It is the grossest patronization to Thank a Vet for his or her service if you haven’t also written your elected representative to demand an end to the Afghan/Iraq campaigns and for priority medical treatment for returning veterans and their families. May God continue to bless those who suffer in service and their families who endure it with them.

www.NoReasonForDying.com

http://tiny.cc/HfAAg

Killing Time In the Rush of Multi-tasking

As a former Vietnam fighter pilot, I witness with amusement the 60 mile per hour crap shoot with death being waged by the addicted Texters speeding past me on the Atlanta freeways. The technological explosion has enveloped many of us in the hypnosis of gadgetry. I-Pod, I-Pad, I-Phone, Standard Text Messaging rates apply. I shake my head at the ubiquitous, clueless, transit gamblers entrapped in the addiction of texting mania while their less brave counterparts move in and out of the traffic streams enduring sweaty ears affixed to plastic telephonic devices keeping them locked in streams of unnecessary chats with remote parties. The addicted texters don't get it until the panicked visual is indelibly etched in their minds of the two rapidly encroaching red eyes that impale themselves in the front bumper before reaction time matters.

I understand the addiction to the crap shoot with danger, the inner fascination with the seduction of "can I do it without dying?" It is an irresistible Calypso siren with which combat pilots have learned to dance, but for which pay is rendered after long periods of training to proficiency. The highway horror will continue; Geico and All State will sustain profitability, as will the mortician and funeral directors, as the texting losers are vanquished in the gamble with death that finally rolled Snake-eyes. Cell phones should be electronically disabled when the vehicle gear shift is removed from PARK.

Keep It Safe,

Captain Bee www.NoReasonForDying.com

Steve Slater Breakdown Just Tip of Iceberg

FLIGHT ATTENDANT MELTDOWN ONLY TIP OF ICEBERG

While the incident with a law breaking passenger that precipitated a meltdown of Jet Blue flight attendant, Steven Slater, has gathered international attention, it is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. U.S. airlines and their employees have been suffering a financial and professional siege since the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Yes, Steven Slater cracked under the strain of being a professional flight attendant, doing his job, caring for the in-flight safety of a recalcitrant passenger, and perhaps wrestling with some personal issues. The very airline by which he is employed is a product of airline de-regulation: small, low cost airlines spawned to fill the voids created by the disappearance of once great carriers like TWA, Pan American and Eastern Airlines.

Yes, the U.S. government, under the guidance and promulgation of economist Alfred Khan, the late Senator Ted Kennedy and former President Jimmy Carter rammed airline de-regulation down America’s throat, fomenting ( as predicted by opponents of de-regulation ) the blood bath of competition that erased the safety net of economic stability maintained by the now abolished Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) originally formed to guarantee a stable air transportation system.

In the thirty plus years since De-Regulation, there has been perpetual financial chaos and bankruptcies among airline companies and the flying public now has to have a Passengers’ Bill of Rights to protect itself during air travel. Let’s take look at what the ever forgetful American flying public got in exchange for De-Regulation: 1) Loss of travel comfort as cabin interiors were modified to expand seat capacity of our aircraft, reducing leg room. (2) Once the blood bath from competition was completed and price wars ended, a handful of major carriers emerged to dominate the major city hubs, ie, United Airlines owns Chicago and Denver; American Airlines owns Dallas and Miami and shares Chicago with United; Continental Airlines owns Houston and Newark. Delta, now merged with Northwest Airlines for economic viability, owns Atlanta, Minneapolis and Seattle. What this all means is that these carriers dominate market share in these cities and have their way with passengers in operational practices and fares, except to the extent that they offer a handful of discounted seats to steal seats away from the lower cost competitors like the Jet Blues, Air Trans, Spirits and Southwest Airs. (3) Cost cutting pressures have induced airlines to seek strategies for lowering maintenance costs and, like U. S. manufacturing companies moving plants to Singapore, China and Vietnam, some of the FAA mandated aircraft maintenance has been farmed out to lower cost foreign contractors raising concerns about maintenance quality control. During the last gasps before Eastern Air Line’s financial collapse in 1991, maintenance supervisors were indicted for “pencil whipping” required aircraft repairs to keep aircraft flying and save on maintenance costs. (4) There was a time in the early seventies when passengers actually dressed nicely for air travel and received hot meals for breakfast, lunch or dinner. People bathed before travelling and there were no tank tops, tea shirts, flip flops as standard travel attire. (5) The low cost carriers that emerged after De-Regulation, like KIWI, New York Air, People Express and Value Jet lowered the bar on employee benefits and pay, forcing major airlines to follow suit to maintain their competitive edge. The result – a bag of peanuts or pack of cookies replaced your hot meal, thrown at you by an increasingly disgruntled flight attendant. (6) The industry shakeout cost literally thousands of pilots, flight attendants and ground personnel their jobs. It is not uncommon today to encounter pilots and flight attendants who have flown for multiple air carriers, and with each subsequent employment having to start over at new hire pay and benefits. And passengers are puzzled why some airline employees are operating on a short fuse. (7) The decline in airline employee morale as a result of underfunding, or discontinuation of, pension funds has abolished any sense of job security and professional enjoyment. Today, few pilots bother to share enroute information or points of interest with passengers; many don’t bother to get out of the seat to greet or say goodbye to passengers out of their loss of professional zeal.
And then the aviation world turned upside down with the tragic events of September 11th. To render some semblance of protection from terrorist threats the TSA was formed and airline employees were confronted with yet additional burdens of job stress, new anti-terrorist procedures, cabin safety concerns, and yes, lowered toleration for misbehaving passengers.

In the face of the new aviation realities, it is perfectly understandable that an airline employee might have cracked under the strain of an encounter with a passenger whose conduct should have resulted in arrest, incarceration and or fine. Yes, flight attendant Steven Slater may have demonstrated a flare for drama in his exit, but the widespread public support for resignation style is not surprising. His exit was not nearly as jaw dropping as the fifty-nine year old airline captain who was informed just before pushback from the gate that his retirement pension was being cut into half of what he was expecting for retirement in one year and he was being requested to take early retirement or risk losing that. After engine start and taxi out for takeoff, he was chewed out by a stressed out ATC ground controller for asking a repeat of taxi instructions. Having overdosed on the madness of it all, the captain set the brakes, shut down the engines, grabbed his flight bags, disarmed the front door emergency evacuation slide, lowered the air stairs and bid stunned onlookers a great day. Don’t cast blame on Steve Slater; he is merely symptomatic of a condition that started with De-Regulation. Have a nice flight!

The author of this piece is a retired Boeing 757 Captain with over thirty-five years as a commercial pilot and a combat pilot who survived almost 200 combat missions in a jet fighter. He is an Adjunct Professor at Mercer University and is the author of an amazing memoire, No Reason For Dying: A Reluctant Combat Pilot’s Confession of Hypocrisy, Infidelity and War.

Website: www.CaptBrianSettles.com

Fraud Among the Vietnam Heroes

Fraud Among The Heroes: Vietnam Veterans
Finally Getting Their Respect and
Disrespect Richard Blumenthal

After forty years, Vietnam vets are getting the acknowledgement they had been denied for decades. As Memorial Day approaches this month, the great sacrifices the combat veterans of Vietnam endured are continuing to elevate their hero status along with the latest generation of combat servicemen and women of Iraq and Afghanistan. The great irony today is the appearance of many heroes-come- lately who want to jump on the Vietnam veteran band wagon. The latest “hero fraud” to be exposed is Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, seeking election to retiring Senator Chris Dodd’s Senate seat in Connecticut. According to the New York Times, Blumenthal mentioned serving in Vietnam as a Marine while making a campaign speech when in fact he signed up for the Marine Reserves only after his initiative for a FIFTH Vietnam deferment failed. He successfully completed Parris Island boot camp but never received orders for service in Vietnam.

It took thirty years for me to freely talk about my combat tour in Vietnam and only in the past three years have I had the freedom to wear my baseball caps and neck bands. For anyone, particularly one seeking the public trust in elected office, to take advantage of the heroism of those who served in one of the most controversial wars in modern times, is a heinous and egregious deception that warrants disqualification from running for public office. Yes, Richard Blumenthal’s lying tap-dance to exude the countenance of a Vietnam Veteran to his voting constituency is a fraud the only remedy for which is withdrawal from the Senate election. How can he be considered to exemplify the highest standards of honesty and decency in public service if he has stooped to the level of jumping on the hero band wagon of the Vietnam vets to elevate his status as a plausible combat veteran. He should disqualify himself; there is no alternative dance that can undo his public deception.
This author is a Vietnam Veteran who flew almost 200 combat missions in a fighter jet . His book is titled: No Reason For Dying: A Reluctant Combat Pilot’s Confession of Hypocrisy, Infidelity and War. www.NoReasonForDying.com

The Tiger Frenzy

The Tiger Frenzy:
Will It End With the Masters?

In spite of the obsessed drama crowd beating this Tiger Woods adventure to death, the Masters golf tournament begins this week and golf enthusiasts worldwide are giddy with anticipation and excitement that The Great One is about to return. Millions will watch the News Conference today to see if reporters can wrestle any more truth out of Tiger about his multiple marital infidelities. This has become a mute point; we know his wife Elin cracked upon having her faced rubbed in knowledge of his womanizing. We know Tiger cracked and crashed, apparently attempting to escape from a hysterical wife bent on bending a Seven iron over his head. That is all old news. The only news that really counts now is the Masters and whether Tiger can hold up under the unimaginable pressure to compete in his comeback appearance in the Super Bowl of golfing events, The Masters. Sadly, the secondary concern is whether Tiger can compete successfully to restore his marriage to healthiness. Most of us hope he can.

Quietly, there are many men (and women) who privately envy and high five Tiger for having been afforded the luxury of indulging his fantasies in spades. The hypnosis and invincibility of ego drove him to blow it. Many other societal superstars have attempted to cross this Rubicon of Hedonism and failed. Access promotes overindulgence which promotes sloppiness. His challenge now is how to deal with paying the cost of exposure and disruption to his private, star quality life as society with its double standard looks on curiously to see if he can hold up under the pressure of returning to greatness.

Brian Settles is a retired airline Captain, former Air Force combat pilot and sports jock who is the author of "No Reason For Dying: A Reluctant Combat Pilot’s Confession of Hypocrisy, Infidelity and War.” Visit his website: www.NoReasonForDying.com