I’m a white guy who’s at least willing to acknowledge that being white and of a middle- to upper-middle-class background has, since birth, bestowed upon him certain crucial advantages. You can call it woke or whatever cliche you want and I’ll take it as a compliment. My brand of Christianity emphasizes empathy, tolerance and the comforting of the afflicted. If J.C. were alive today, I like to think we’d see eye to eye on that score.


And, if you must know, yes, I am awesome to fly with because 1) I know my $hit and 2) I am fairly funny and personable and 3) I assiduously avoid any discussion of politics or religion and will almost always manage to sidetrack the conversation into an area in which the person I am flying with and I have common ground, i.e., cars, home improvement projects, military history, military service, the apparent idiocy of teenage sons, wives and their idiosyncrasies, etc., etc. In fact, I would venture to guess that were you and I to fly together, you would never even know that I am on a secret mission to make the world a better and more tolerant place.