Miracle on the Hudson

They are calling it "The Miracle on the Hudson." It happened when a plane carrying 155 passengers suffered a midair collision, forcing it down into the river. All aboard survived.

The pilot has since been proclaimed "a hero." To preserve his "hero" status, they are blaming the birds. That's right; the birds did it.

The pilot's story - which is the story - is that a flock of birds flew into the plane's engines, taking both engines out. If the birds could talk, they would tell you the pilot flew into them causing massive casualties.

Hey, the birds have air traffic control, too. (Have you ever seen two flocks of birds fly into each other?) They've been using these same air lanes for a million years. Then, along we come in the last hundred years, or so, and call them "culprits" for getting in our way.

Yes, Brian Williams of NBC News, called the birds "suspected culprits." That is what we need, you know - culprits. Culprits produce victims. There can be no heroes without potential victims. And that is what we need most of all - heroes.

Ask BBC news correspondent, Matthew Price. While covering this story, he described America as "...a country that so loves a hero." (Is that how the world sees us? Has Price been listening to the birds?). And if that is what we are, does it not suggest - from a foreigner's perspective - that we might twist a story or two to achieve that noble objective?

Back to the birds: Do you think they have heroes too? A couple of eight-pound birds taking out a ten-ton plane must be like a foot soldier stopping a tank. "Miracle on the Hudson"? Perhaps the birds are calling it the same thing.