Photo: Flickr, Ingrid Taylor.
If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s for Tournament of Roses officials to bring a trademark “rosy optimism” to each New Year’s celebration.
For a year overshadowed by malaise like 2010 promises to be, could they have done any better to lift our spirits than naming Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger as the parade’s Grand Marshal?
Throughout the Tournament’s history, Grand Marshal honors have gone mostly to celebrities, political figures and even cartoon characters. But kudos to parade officials for recognizing a true American hero right when we need one the most.
Since safely ditching his US Airways plane in the Hudson almost a year ago, Capt. Sully has remained a humble, straightforward man — despite the sudden celebrity thrust upon him for saving all 155 people in his charge. To hear him in interviews, he’s just a guy who happened that day to be doing a job he loved to the best of his ability.
As LAist notes, the Captain’s cool post-splashdown demeanor has even earned him “stud status” and 600,000 fans on Facebook.
All that silliness aside, to me Sullenberger embodies a reminder we desperately need in 2010: That our nation is actually filled with common men and women who are somehow able to roll up their sleeves and accomplish the uncommon when the going gets tough.
I know such sentiment is considered sappy nowadays, but I’ll underscore it anyway… All too often our pop culture worships the “media heroes” enshrined in the political or sports arenas and star-studded galas peddling the latest celebrity cause. We forget that every day, guided by a steady mindset and basic human values, “ordinary” people are rising to heroic stature in their homes, workplaces and communities, rarely noticed by the media limelight. It will be refreshing to see Sullenberger metaphorically representing them at the parade.
- For a look at the Captain’s ranking among the Tournament’s 121-year parade of Grand Marshals, visit the official online roster. (Wikipedia also has a list with additional links to many of the Marshals’ bios.)
- Even more interesting is the Tournament’s photographic timeline stretching back to the very first event in 1890.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I think this is a good move on the part of parade officials.