I wasn't sure whether to drop into a tailspin or weep at one man's predicament after reading about the Springdale air traffic controller arrested at his weekday morning work shift.
News and police accounts reported veteran controller Philip "P.J." Maschek was charged with misdemeanor public intoxication after he was discovered unconscious with his shirt off about 7:45 a.m. last Thursday inside the municipal airport tower after a pilot couldn't get a radio response to his request for a takeoff. Police were summoned.
Apparently, the 50-year-old controller, wearing a black robe and house shoes when arrested, had no previous history of work-related problems after 20 years of service. And Maschek denies being intoxicated, although police said they didn't place him in handcuffs out of concern that he might have problems descending the steep ladder from the control tower.
This obviously is a serious matter since air traffic controllers are in charge of the Springdale airport's tower and the lives that entails.
In the related story by reporter Scarlet Sims, police reported the controller failed a field sobriety test and showed signs of intoxication that included slurred speech and swaying on his feet while failing to follow instructions. But he refused to take a breathalyzer, and police didn't take a blood sample.
The police report also said the suspect argued over the term "public intoxication."
Mascheck was employed by Robinson Aviation, which contracts with Springdale and other communities for air traffic services. The FAA, which licenses Robinson, says it will work with that company to investigate the incident.
Meanwhile, Wyman Morgan, a Springdale administrator who oversees airport affairs, summarized the feelings of many by telling Sims: "The tower operator has control and responsibility of the safety of the planes landing and taking off at the airport. It's a very safety-oriented position."
I nominate Wyman Morgan for the understatement of the year in Washington County.
Arming our military
Good for Gov. Asa Hutchinson and elected leaders in surrounding states for taking action our Congress in D.C. has failed to: Protect our full-time servicemen and women by permitting them to carry firearms.
It's never made sense to me that trained armed forces personnel would be prohibited from being armed on military installations. I'd have to lump that thinking with the generally illogical and increasingly dangerous category of political correctness in a dangerous world teeming with evil people who use a pollyanna-ish reasoning to ignore reality.
Sadly, it took the latest shooting deaths of five servicemen at the Navy and Marine reserve center in Chattanooga to convince state leaders that it's well past time for those serving our welfare to be able to protect their own when under attack. One of the slain was Marine Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, formerly of Russellville.
Because of these misguided prohibitions against arming U.S. service people, not one of the slain servicemen in Tennessee carried a weapon they might have used to defend themselves and protect others.
Hutchinson joined elected leaders in Texas and Oklahoma in ordering greater security at state recruiting stations and military installations. "Clearly, they are a target, and for us to have unarmed military personnel makes no sense, which is why I'm directing Major General Mark Berry to arm full-time personnel as he deems necessary at military installations," Hutchinson wrote.
It makes no sense for these uniformed men and women not to be armed, Governor. Good move in these times when the enemy clearly is present and killing Americans within our gates.
Disrespecting truths
On the matter of political correctness, it's abundantly evident to me (and I suspect many millions of others) just what a dangerous slippery slope this notion is in sliding toward thought control and mind police.
It's a threat to freedom of expression, religion and honest discourse, not to mention a weak and wholly disingenuous equivalent to collectively pretending purple is actually lime green.
Emotions, personal beliefs and preferences are an integral and natural part of the American and the human experience. To deny that is not only outright deception but a huge threat to living our lives with truth rather than idealized fantasy.
I don't have to embrace, respect or appreciate everyone else and their likes, dislikes, proclivities, faith and behavior. And that's just fine. It's normal because we have the ability to reason for ourselves. Others don't have to like mine either, even should my feelings get hurt. That, my friends, is simply real life.
To publicly ridicule others who don't toe some politically contrived, subjective "proper" line of thought, speech and action (as enforced all too often today by the mainstream media who revel in throwing every personal rock possible at those they decree not joining this insincere game) is itself evil because it respects neither truth nor personal choice.
Moreover, it's diametrically opposed to the very individual freedoms our forefathers died to protect and preserve.
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 07/21/2015