Fighting Rudeness With Kindness

There is a lot of attention being paid to the real time retaliation of Elan Gale against a woman who was mad that their flight was delayed. There are now rumors that the woman is dying of cancer and was desperate to spend what she feels is her last Thanksgiving with her family.

I initially read the live tweeting and thought it was somewhat humorous. Then I reached the end. Elan Gale reached a line and then crossed it. Had he left it with the glass of wine and a funny note, that would have been enough. But when the woman responded and he countered, things took a turn. He went from being someone using humor to defuse a situation to someone just making things worse.

The best thing he could have done was just ignore the note from the woman and leave it at that.

2 thoughts on “Fighting Rudeness With Kindness

  1. Agreed.

    I’m not even sure I believe it actually all happened, and it isn’t just a hoax, but if it is real, he’s no hero. He was worse than his description of Diane.

  2. I refrained from commenting on this story when it originally hit because I didn’t want to criticize so many of my friends and colleagues for condoning this guy’s behavior. If you think her behavior was unacceptable, how can you justify responding in kind (or even worse)?

    It reminds me of a story Stephen Covey told in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where he was sitting on a train as a father across from him let his young children run around like crazy, disturbing everyone on the train. When Covey confronted him about his children’s behavior (albeit a lot less rudely than Elan did), the father told him the kids’ mother, his wife, had just died and they were coming from the funeral.

    I try not to judge. I’m human, and sometimes I do, but I always catch myself and think about what the other person might be going through in their life.

    I just think it’s moments like these that show people’s true character. Elan, and all the people who applauded him for his obnoxious and crass behavior, showed us what kind of people they really are.

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