A sincere thank you for that post.
I know I come across as angry and bitter quite often on these boards toward senior UAL pilots. I'm slowly working that out of my system. I could understand my furlough post-911 and blamed neither management nor the pilots for that - there was no choice in the matter.
Some of the steps taken since then have riled my feathers quite a bit but I am coming to grasp with the fact that being off of property means that I don't matter to many and there was quite a bit of self-preservation (both corporate and personal) that went on through 2004. When I read of near empty 747s flying across the Pacific during SARS, I wasn't sure if there would be a United to go back to. I am very thankful to every UAL pilot on property who kept the ship afloat during the darkest days; I just wish that they had thought what the impact would be on those of us on the streets during some of the decision-making process. To that end, I need to remember that we all think in terms of self-preservation first.

Frats,
Andy