America, the Iran deal--and a metaphor?

If anyone you know wants to figure out what will happen to America as a result of the currently proposed US-Iran ‘nuclear’ deal, I may have found a metaphor for them. This metaphor might work for an American because it doesn’t come from the Middle East. It comes from America.

It seems that an Alaska Airlines passenger plane was recently forced to make an emergency landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Andrew Desiderio, “Ramp Agent Stuck in Cargo Hold of Plane Forces Emergency Landing”, mediaite, April 13, 2015).  Perhaps you saw the story on the news. A ramp worker got trapped inside the cargo hold. The plane had taken off for Los Angeles with him in the hold.

Picture the scene. You are that ramp worker. You’re trapped. The plane takes off. You may have no idea where the plane is heading—or how dangerous your ride is going to be.

If you’re in America, you might feel the same way about the ‘deal’ the US wants to make with Iran. The US says the deal will stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That would be good news, of course. But Iran says the US is lying. Iran’s leader also threatens, ‘Death to America’.

How does the US react? Secretary of State John Kerry celebrates how wonderfully the deal is turning out (“Khamenei calls ‘Death to America’ as Kerry hails progress on nuke deal”, Times of Israel, March 21, 2015).

Does that make you feel good—or does it make you feel like that trapped ramp worker, caught in something very big about to take off with you inside it, helpless?

Isn’t that what’s happening? Aren’t you in the same boat, err, plane, as that ramp worker?

After that Alaska Airlines plane took off, the pilot heard noise coming from under the plane. The noise sounded like frantic banging. How would you like to have been that pilot?

The pilot called for an emergency landing. His plane had been airborne only 14 minutes. But he had to land because he couldn’t figure out why he was hearing frantic banging.

Fortunately, this airplane story has a happy ending. The plane landed safely. The ramp worker was unharmed.

This story contains a moral lesson for you. That lesson comes in the form of a question: how did the ramp worker get stuck in the cargo hold in the first place?

He fell asleep there.

America, you’ve been warned. Don’t fall asleep when you should be awake. You may not fare as well as that ramp worker.