First Class

For the Minnesota-wing of my family, a nice story from Peter King's weekly column about the class shown by former Viking star wideout Cris Carter:

Cris Carter, my HBO compatriot, on his Travel Story of the Year:

"I'm flying from Atlanta to Nashville the other day for a business meeting for a security company I have. You see military people all over the airport, thousands of military people traveling. They're all in their camouflage. I get on the plane with my brother John. We're sitting in first-class. The guy across from me, I hear him talking to the flight attendant and all of a sudden he grabs his stuff and goes to the back of the plane.

I hear him saying he's giving up his seat to someone in the military. I told my brother, 'Get up, we're going to the back.' We go to the back, sit down, give up our seats, and one by one, everyone in first-class started giving up their seats. It wasn't a big plane. Then the pilot got on and said, 'Thanks to the generosity of the patrons in first-class, some of our military personnel will be in first-class today. Glad to have you. Thanks for what you do.'

It was an emotional moment, a small thing I would have never thought of. It was nice. How easy you can make someone's holiday trip home a little more pleasant.''

Although nobody offered me their seat when I was traveling on leave, I was approached by many people in the Baltimore and Atlanta airports who thanked me for my service.

Also, Peter King has a touching update on a Staff Sergeant with whom he's corresponded and is now home from Iraq and celebrating Christmas. I disagree with King on many things (in particular his repeated snub of Redskins great Art Monk on the Hall of Fame ballot). But King demonstrates perfectly how it is possible to be both anti-war and genuinely pro-troop, unlike many "activists" who claim support for the troops merely as a prop for their anti-Bush or, as in the case of Cindy Sheehan and supporters, anti-American beliefs.

Thank you Cris Carter and Peter King for your support. It is greatly appreciated.