COLUMN: What America stands for

From Tom Nessinger's "Inseparable My Nose and Thumb," Fall '96 From Tom Nessinger's "Inseparable My Nose and Thumb," Fall '96Allowing a seven-year-old to fly a plane wasFrom Tom Nessinger's "Inseparable My Nose and Thumb," Fall '96Allowing a seven-year-old to fly a plane wasstupid, ridiculous – and un-American. By now we've all heard about the tragic death of 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff, killed while taking her (apparently overloaded) Cessna off in a thunderstorm on the second leg of her quest to become the youngest person ever to fly across the U.S. You've heard the experts debate the wisdom of allowing small children to pilot airplanes. They say seven is too young to fly. They say it's criminally negligent to indulge the wishes of a small child in something as inherently dangerous as cross-country flight. Well, I'd like to tell you what I think about all these so-called "experts:" THEY'RE RIGHT! Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that young Jessica's father didn't push her into this; that the dream was all hers, that she did, in fact, pester her parents for flying lessons and all by herself hit on the idea of being the youngest person ever to fly cross-country. So the hell what? Who just lets their kid do any silly thing she wants? Two words, people: parenting skills. Of course young Jessica wanted to fly a Cessna cross-country. If my parents had told me at age seven that I could fly a Cessna cross-country, I'd have jumped at the chance. If they'd have let me back the family Ford out of the driveway I'd have jumped at that, too. That's how you think when you're seven -- if it sounds like fun, go for it and don't think about safety or consequences. Now, if Jessica had volunteered to break the world's record for eating lima beans or writing book reports, then I might have been impressed -- but flying? What kid would turn that down? Face it, when you're in second grade pretty much everything adults do seems cool. Who thinks about their own mortality when they're still in their cavity-prone years? All you see are the good parts. When I was seven we used to play soldier. We thought being soldiers was the finest play under the sun. I doubt very much, however, that the real soldiers in southeast Asia in those days (this was 1967, understand) thought it was quite so spiffy an adventure. I'll accept that there might be some seven-year-olds who possess the physical skills necessary to pilot an aircraft with adult supervision. What you'll never convince me of is that there breathes a second-grader with the maturity or judgment or just plain common sense successfully to navigate an airplane, let alone an overloaded airplane, let alone in a freaking thunderstorm. They say there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but no old bold pilots. When you're not an old pilot, when you're the exact chronological opposite of an old pilot, you'll likely tend toward the "bold" end of the spectrum. This is why most parents with a milligram of common sense, when their kids want to fly airplanes or be stock-car racers or buy submachine guns, say either, "No!" or "When you're older." There is a fine line between encouraging your kids to follow their dreams and allowing them to do insane, dangerous things that are far beyond their abilities. Jessica's parents obviously lacked the ability to discern that line. In fact, Jessica's mother, Lisa Blair Hathaway, has been almost aggressively unapologetic. Hathaway has consistently defended the decision to let Jessica fly, justified by such new-age moronicisms as letting Jessica "be in the space of living [her] life." What's more, in insisting she'd let her little girl do it again if given the opportunity, Hathaway has said that Jessica's flight was part of her having freedom of choice and having "what America stands for." Perspective check on Aisle 6! Now, Hathaway is understandably distraught and no doubt would like to make some sense out of what, to most of us, was a senseless tragedy. Even granting this, one wonders just what Jessica's mother thought her daughter was doing that exemplified what America stands for. Was she raising money for charity? No. Was she advancing the cause of science, technology or aviation? Nope. Was she at least doing something that would raise America's standing or reputation in the world? Uh-uh. No, what Jessica was doing, whether for her own reasons or at her parents' urging, was something entirely self-serving: trying to break a meaningless record just for the pure hell of doing it. Yes, I said meaningless record. Who the hell cares who the youngest kid to fly coast-to-coast is? People remember the Wright brothers, Chuck Yeager and Neil Armstrong. I'll bet not one person in 10 could tell you the name of the last seven-year-old to fly across the country, the one whose record Jessica was trying to beat. She probably wouldn't have gotten the press coverage she did if we weren't in the middle of a lull before the presidential campaigns heat up. Jessica Dubroff died for a human interest story. How's that for an epitaph? Yes, this is America. We all have the freedom to choose to do almost any damn fool thing we want: swallow goldfish, go bungee-jumping, wear Star Trek uniforms to jury duty, whatever. I'm not going to be the one to tell you you can't do something inexplicably stupid with your own life. I might feel compelled to step in before you do it with your kid's life. But I'll tell you what I won't do: I won't, under any circumstances, let you try to convince me that letting your kid risk her life in pursuit of a selfish chase into the record books is somehow a shining example of all that is good about this country. A firefighter who dies saving a family is what America stands for. An inner-city teacher trying to educate kids and give them a chance is what America stands for. But a second-grader who dies trying to get herself 15 minutes of fame is just dead. Period. Maybe that does say something about America, but it sure as hell isn't good.

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