Originally Posted by Sunvox

Ahh, the million dollar question!

Well Monsieur Salley, I have my thoughts which may be totally wrong as they are derived from a scant number of APC posts and I am not a trained psychologist. None the less, I shall endeavor to solve this mystery of "why" you would put yourself through such unnecessary pain and public persecution.

To begin let's examine the brief history for Ben Salley of which I am aware.

Step one you join the Air Force. Step two (or perhaps 3 or 4 I don't have your complete bio available so please forgive me) you join USAirways. Step three you perceive the looming disaster of a career that awaits you at USAirways and leave to join Continental Airlines (brilliant maneuver if I may say so). Step four you publish a highly inflammatory email to your local council members which finds its way onto the internet. Step five you defend said email by saying you are doing what's best for your constituency. Step six you decide to come back online and ask everyone to move past the SLI and pull from the same side of the rope, and lastly step seven you ask if a lowly peon understands the "why" of it all.


So how to determine the meaning of it all . . .

First and quite assuredly I state that you are a man of great intellect. Your biography, ability to switch carriers, and your ability to insert yourself into ALPA politics having only just joined the company attest to that fact. Second, I feel you desire to have a positive impact and be recognized as having such. Evidence the repeated reference to trying to do "what's best" and the total lack of personal gain from said efforts. But, . . . . and here's where you may begin to dislike my analysis . . . I find your efforts to be akin to those of our erstwhile President Bill Clinton. He too was brilliant and successful, but he was willing to change his views as quickly as the North wind could turn West. I, on the other hand, envy folks who stand steadfast like the Oak against the storm and stand even after the storm passes pointing still in the same direction. I do not believe there is a "doing what's best for my constituency". There is truth and there is untruth. You took part in a "truth" that may divide our pilot group for decades to come, but you were in a position to lead in the other direction and chose the analogy of foxhole life or death politics instead. I believe I know your true feelings and true personality. You strongly desire to be a leader and to be recognized as such but I think your politics are too Machiavelllian for my taste. That is why you are an LEC rep.