JESUS AIR: We've all heard that story by now of the airline pilot who asked the passengers on a flight whether they were Christians, and encouraged those who answered "yes" to proselytize to those who answered "no." Seemingly every passenger on the flight has appeared on at least one cable news talk show, and Jon Stewart joked that "religious fanatics flying a plane? What could possibly go wrong?"
I once, believe it or not, had a similar experience, though it did not involve Jesus. On a synagogue trip to Chicago when I was in eighth grade, we took Amtrak from Minneapolis, and as we were boarding the train the conductor got up in front of us and gave a long speech about how federal transportation funds were in danger of being cut, and that it was our responsibility to do something about that, such as writing a letter to our congressman. This was necessary, he said, because "you are the future of transportation in America."
I've ridden Amtrak a couple dozen times since, especially since moving to the East Coast, but strangely that was the one and only time the conductor ambushed us with a fundraising speech. Whether I'm still part of "the future," however, remains an open question.