Opinions

It began with Sean—it’s always Sean. He’s a whirlwind wrapped in denim, a man whose bloodstream pulses with equal parts Monster Energy, beard oil, and raw mischief. Sean’s ideas are rarely sane, frequently questionable, and inevitably epic. So, when he invited me to a tattoo convention in Omaha, where he’d voluntarily spend seven relentless hours beneath the buzzing needle of Jon Fleming—a Lincoln ink-slinger ready to defend Nebraska pride against a global invasion—I knew logic had already lost.

When I was going through the year-long Air Force pilot training program years ago, I found most of the instructor pilots to be patient, encouraging and helpful. However, the training was rigorous and the washout rate in my class of 63 was 42 percent. The stress level was extremely high, indeed! Occasionally in his frustrations toward a student pilot, an instructor would resort to using fear, intimidation and ridicule which often had detrimental effects to the student’s learning and performance. We found that instructors who resorted to bullying tactics were quickly moved to assignments involving no student interaction, which was much to our relief as students.

Loren Lippincott, District 34 Senator Bills have been introduced in the current legislative session to regulate several substances that are currently sold over the counter in Nebraska but which have serious health risks associated with their use. One is known as kratom and another is nitrous oxide (N2O), commonly known as laughing gas.

I’ve often considered what a grim task it must be to run one of those big-city newspapers. Imagine it—the soul-crushing skyscrapers, endless political turmoil, gloomy headlines served fresh each morning with your coffee. Each page filled with calamity and chaos. Thankfully, the universe chose a different path for me.

The noon whistle didn’t blow the other day. Neither did the 7, the 1, or the 6.

At Delta Air Lines where I was a pilot for many years, it is customary for the flight crew to stand at the door and greet passengers as they board or exit the plane. I made every attempt to do this, keeping in mind a quote from Henry Ford: “It is not the employer who pays wages – he only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages.” In the airline industry the passenger experience is the product!