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Terrorists, Natural Disasters and Flight Sim: Making a Connection
By Ron Blehm (22 November 2005)
An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week noted that
following the SE Asian Tsunami last December, Americans pledged
nearly 1.3 billion dollars in aide to the region. I know of at least
one family from my church that went “back home” for a few weeks
to help render aide and support. Following the Hurricane Katrina
devastation along the US Gulf Coast a few months ago, we
(Americans) gave nearly 2 billion dollars, and again, I know of more
than a dozen people who either went to help or took in families which
had been displaced. It’s all pretty darn generous if you ask me.
Then there were the tragic earthquakes in the Kashmiri region of
Pakistan / India, killing tens-of-thousands, leaving millions
homeless just as winter approaches, and Americans have pledged little
over 13 million (with an “M” not a “B”) dollars. The
article went on to theorize that we give as we feel and most
Americans somehow “feel” less for those affected by the
earthquakes. Read the piece
here.I think back just 12 years to note how America (and “The West” in general) have lent aide and security to places like Bosnia and the former Soviet Republics while at the same time virtually ignoring the civil war and genocide occurring in Rwanda. Why, even just recently we Americans have been in the Middle East while Sudan and Uganda are embroiled in their own wars and unrest – it seems that we don’t have the time to hear about these other “conflicts” because they just aren’t as important to “National Security.” And before I make any more political statements, let me get to my point, which is this: flightsim crosses all borders and boundaries and we should celebrate that each and every day! (Op-Ed 351).
We fly, or sim, because we love to. It doesn’t matter if you are from New Zealand, Norway or somewhere between, once you start comparing sim-stories you can go on for hours. There are sub-groups of society, like firefighters and cardio-thoracic surgeons; that share a special bond because they do things that most of us cannot do. Similarly, in the world of computer gamers we are in are considered “odd” because our goal is to complete the mission while making sure that “nobody gets hurt.” It’s hard to explain what we do to a “normal” person: A flight simmer named Bill Smith once told a story about getting onto an elevator with a couple from Cape Town, South Africa, and suddenly he found himself talking about his flights there – only later to have to back up and explain that he was only simming. Now, had they not thought that Bill was a complete lunatic, he would have been able to make a connection with people that otherwise would have remained only strangers. (Apparently it is not uncommon for strangers to think that Bill Smith is a lunatic – and having said that, I’ll watch for his rebuttal in another Op-Ed soon. We love ya Bill!) (See Bill Smith's article here.) But my point is that if we can make a personal connection with someone, that connection strengthens both of us!
A year or two back there was an Op-Ed right here about how Arabs and Israelis talk together on VATSIM each day, they exchange not just information but pleasantries as well. And aren’t things a little better when we start focusing on our similarities rather than our differences? I mean really, if we want peace then it seems only logical that we look for ways to get along rather than ways to annihilate and alienate other cultures or sects.
When you are able to make a connection with someone, they suddenly mean something to you – even just a little. It just so happened that our Monthly Feature flight last January was in SE Asia – the author (from Singapore) wrote the details of the flight long before the tsunamis struck, but suddenly flying the sim into Phuket and Banda Ache took on a new, more personal meaning because it was like you were THERE. We have dozens of Scandinavian members in our Virtual Flying Club (www.toomuchfs.com) and many of those killed in Thailand and Indonesia were Swedes on vacation. It hurts us all when these things happen. When the Madrid and London transit systems were hit by terrorists, I immediately sent out e-mails to our members there to be sure they were all okay – one of our members had family injured in the Madrid bombings. These things suddenly become more important, more personal and more revolting when we know that through our flight simming hobby we have connections with people and places around the world. When bad things happen to good people, we should all take pause long enough to know that this effects not just our fellow human beings but our fellow simmers as well! It shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for any of us to find connections with people in New Orleans or Addis Ababa – personally, I’ve spent time in both of these unique cities.
We have been blessed with a venue that allows us to make “personal” connections with people who, if we were to discuss religion or politics, may be vastly different than ourselves – but when we are talking about flying we are suddenly all equal. As examples:
* Having simmed with a German whose parents were supplied by the Berlin Airlift adds new weight to those stories. Also, knowing how modern Germans feel about their own national history means that I don’t take the Messerschmitt into the air with quite the same bravado as I used to!
* Having simmed with someone whose family was killed in an Airbus accident means that if we are ever on-line together, I will not be flying an A300 into THAT city – better to keep a respectful distance than to be a swashbuckling fool! (You may notice that we can respect someone without agreeing with their point of view!)
* Having simmed with a Muslim, I now have a clearer understanding that Jihad (the one Muhammad taught) is NOT ABOUT insurgency!
* Having met with World War II pilots, I suddenly have a new appreciation for flying that Hellcat onto the carrier at night. (See Op-Ed 328.)
* When you have flown, “on assignment,” into someone’s home airport, you suddenly take notice when the A380 shows up there – you can e-mail him and ask if he was looking out the window!
* Having simmed with a Canadian I now know never to make fun of hockey players.
* Last year one of our German members had a business trip to the UK and one of our British members was able to share an air museum trip and some time on the sim with his new “brother.”
FlightSim.Com gets a couple million hits per day, and aren’t all of us kinda interested in the same thing: flightsimming? Sure, we can remain “Strangers in a Strange World” (titled after this piece), holed up in our little computer dark rooms; or we can step out and speak up, just a bit, and try to connect with our fellow pilots. (I noted the above link because following that story, Hans was contacted by a fellow simmer, a “brother-in-spirit,” from Venezuela, and the two of them are still in close contact years later.) After all, when it comes to simming, none of us is really above anyone else. (See "Variations on a Theme"). We’re all just a bunch of friends simming our way around the virtual world. (See "Variations on a Theme III").
Ron Blehm
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