Cory Who?

If you haven't yet heard about the atrocity that happened yesterday in New York, then you're either a deaf, dumb, blind, mute, or Cory Lidle's flight instructor.

What? Did you cringe? Good - that was the effect I wanted. I'm trying to bring up a point. Early reports yesterday (which continued throughout the afternoon, into the evening, and continued this morning) claimed that Cory Lidle, a New York Yankees pitcher, played chicken with a high-rise condo on the upper east side of Manhattan, and lost. As the story began to develop, further reports claimed that three other people perished in the crash. Minutes later, only two people had died.

The media is at it again! Sure, citizens of our country were overly concerned about this event - thinking the worst - that another terrorist attack was under way. Still, what's wrong with stating the facts, rather than what some homeless finger-licking crack addict told a pimply-faced reporter on east 72nd?

Nonetheless, this tragedy of course queues up new ways to attract viewers, readers, or website visitors. After all, how long did you really think it would be before we were fed a list of athletes who have perished in plane crashes?

Yet, this was not the issue I was most disturbed by. Notice in the first paragraph I named three people. One person I stated by name: Cory Lidle. The second person was a hypothetical boob - the deaf, dumb, blind mute. The third, a person equally deserving of a nominal mention, was the flight instructor.

Why is Cory Lidle so incredibly important in this universe, that he should be mentioned by full name, while his poor flight instructor, the only victim of terror yesterday, goes unnamed into the anonymous halls of death? If anyone deserves to be mentioned, it's the flight instructor. This guy (or girl) sat in the co-pilot seat, watching the outer walls of the high-rise approach, knowing death was imminent.

They found his flight log. It claimed he'd flown a total of 88 hours in a cockpit, 47 of which he served as head pilot. This is fascinating information. Apparently, if you're a Yankee pitcher, you can learn to operate deadly machinery in just one week's time. You will then be permitted to operate this deadly machinery within the confines of the greatest city in the world, putting millions of lives at risk.

Damn it feels good to be a Yankee.