Captain Courageous

Sully is yesterdays news. Sure, he safely landed a jet full of people in the Hudson River.

We quickly tired of Sully. Our new hero is Capt. Richard Phillips. After being held hostage by Somali pirates for several days, Capt. Phillips escaped after Navy SEALS shot his three captors to death at the same moment.

For the past several days, all of the news has been about Capt. Phillips. The United States has vowed to deal with piracy in the waters off Somalia. As posted in this very blog many months ago, piracy has been a major issue. Of course, U.S. media didn't pick up on this since it didn't seem to impact U.S. citizens. Not until a U.S. resident was held hostage did we even care about piracy of Somalia.

Don't get me wrong. I am very happy that Captain Phillips is now safe. However, there are several hundred people from various ships being held by Somali pirates. Since they are not U.S. citizens, it obviously doesn't seem to matter to most of us. Each one of the people currently being held captive by the pirates is a son/daughter and/or brother/sister and/or husband/wife and/or father/mother. We should care about them. We should also care about the Somali pirates that feel they have no alternative for survival other than engaging in piracy. They are also somebody's family members.