our opinions: CURMUDGEON MUSINGS
The Last
BY MARK BROWN
Word
I have to give you one of my all time favorite Sir Winston Churchill quotes.
“A lie gets halfway around the world before
the truth has a chance to get it’s pants on.”
N
ow, while I’m sure that this was true in
his day, but how much more so today.
Compared to our world of Insta/Google/Tweet/
Face ... and the thing is if it’s on the net, every-
one believes it.
So the moral of the story is, don’t believe
everything you hear, and you certainly shouldn’t
believe hardly anything you read on the Internet.
In fact, if I were you, I would limit how much
I disclose on the net. That is a virtual candy
store for the evil, crooked, worthless humans
that steal your identity.
Here’s a thought, if you want to disclose
something heartfelt or sensitive or just something
private, write a letter. What a concept! This is
the theory — write something in longhand, or
type it on a typewriter, or your computer, print it
out, then get an envelope, put a stamp on it and
then walk outside and mail it. You will find it is
cathartic, so much more stimulating than posting
pictures of your latest meal on Facebook.
But that’s not why you called.
My real story is about teamwork, and how
by working together people can accomplish
anything.
Recently we took a cruise. About a day and
half out we headed to the first port, the captain
announced there had been an accident at sea,
and ours was the closest vessel to the situation.
So, our ship headed to the scene at full speed.
The captain came back on and told us that the
accident was a plane crash, and also said the
crew had never done this before, but had prac-
ticed man overboard drills. The ship got to the
scene with help of a Coast Guard spotter plane,
found the two pilots in a life boat, sent out a
rescue boat with full crew, and safely got the
pilots on board our ship.
The point of this was from the captain down
to the crew, it was amazing to watch them
accomplish this rescue. These are people from
all over the world, they spoke many different
languages and have many different jobs on the
ship. Still, they worked in such unison, as a
team, it truly gave us all a great feeling about
people and what they can accomplish if they
have a common goal and work together.
Last quote I’ll share is from Henry Ford, who
had some really good ones...
“Coming together is a beginning, staying
together is progress, and working together is
success.”