Are You Sleeping?

Sometimes people fall asleep when they're not supposed to. At one time or another, we've all sat next to someone at a movie, play, ballet, school concert … who just nodded off.  It can be mildly amusing, unless the sleeping person is the person you came with. Then it's embarrassing.

When is it not OK to fall asleep?

When you are an air traffic controller. Last week, a medical plane carrying a passenger needing emergency medical care, tried to land at the Reno-Tahoe, Nevada airport.  They could not make contact with the control tower because the controller was sleeping.  Fortunately, they were able to land themselves without incident.

A month earlier, at Reagan National Airport in Washington – a place where one would assume, that security measures would be most stringent – two jets had to land unassisted because again, the lone controller had nodded off.  There was another sleeping controller in Knoxville, Tennessee, and  – inexplicably – this past Monday, a Seattle controller was suspended for falling asleep, after already being punished for falling asleep twice in January.  How is this possible?

We are so busy ensuring safe air travel that we can't carry a bottle of Poland Spring or wear shoes and security guards are busy patting down six year olds.  And all the while, all over the country, air traffic controllers are napping through landings.  AND, not getting fired!

Shouldn't safety start with those who are hired and trained to protect us?  The real question isn't, why aren't these sleeping controllers fired on the spot?  That's a rhetorical question.  The real question is, why are they working alone with no backup?  So in case there is a real emergency and they are incommunicado, there is someone else there to guide pilots?

These air traffic controller incidents have become so rampant, that after the latest near disaster in Reno this week, FAA Air Traffic Supervisor, Hank Krakowski, resigned.

Cleaning house will not solve the problem.  There needs to be two controllers at all times, shorter, staggered shifts and more stringent zero tolerance rules among other things.

When is it also not OK to fall asleep?

When your boss is speaking.  More specifically when your boss is speaking – and he is the President of the United States – and both of you are on TV.  News cameras rolled on Wednesday when Vice President, Joe Biden was shown power napping during President Obama's federal budget speech.  No doubt about it, the Veep was out cold.  Not a particularly good sign when you are up for re-election and your right hand man can't force himself awake to listen to an important speech on a pressing issue.

Are there any other times when it's not OK to fall asleep?

When you are the US Postal Service. Last week it was discovered that when the USPS released their 2011 Forever stamps depicting The Statue of Liberty – there was one tiny mistake.  It's not the actual statue of Liberty.  At least not the one in New York Harbor.  The Forever stamp shows a replica of the statue which is located at the New York, New York Casino in Las Vegas.  The blunder was uncovered by a stamp enthusiast magazine.  What tipped them off?  The difference in the statue's hair and eyes.  The USPS acknowledged the mistake but is keeping the stamps in circulation.

When have you been asleep for years?

When you are a major television network, like say … ABC, who announced that they are canceling All My Children and One Life to Live.  I was an AMC Fan in the '70s and '80s and I do feel a tinge of sadness about losing it – there was some measure of comfort knowing that even though I hadn't watched in 25 years, I could if I wanted to.  But the fact that I never wanted to, and neither did most people, for a really long time, is why the formerly popular soaps are getting axed. 

Soap operas were created to sell soap. Cleaning products, to housewives who were home and watched afternoon television. The shift in our family structure – with far fewer stay at home housewives, caused a sharp decline in these traditional epic sagas' popularity. Life happens much faster now.  If we want a dose of melodrama, we have our real lives, or Charlie Sheen's.  So even though I think that ABC was asleep for a long time, letting these soap operas continue, way past their prime, I will always have fond memories of them.  Pine Valley and Llanview – RIP.

Heads up to Joe Biden who might be out of a job, I hear that Donald Trump might be looking for someone.

WAKE UP!