FAA offers guidance to SC on accountability

Hope floats as one federal entity earns high marks. Since the Federal Aviation Administration revoked the too-far-flying Northwest pilots' licenses, passengers can now board with renewed assurances of ethics carrying weight and consequences arriving on time.

We in South Carolina should copy that flight plan. Our disoriented pilot, Gov. Mark Sanford, violated vital leadership essentials by forsaking his fiduciary responsibility for five days and accruing many taboo miles, absconding security clearance regulations, grounding required communication with the public and staff, plus committing other offenses indicative of a self-serving, integrity-lacking character, soon to be revealed by the state Ethics Commission. Sanford engaged in heated illicit activities and still four months later faces no fire.

While a concerned Delta attendant demanded an answer, in the Sanford saga we know of no crew member who acted accordingly. Instead, state Sen. Tom Davis, for example, followed his misguided captain's course rather than served as a true steward. Thus a new emergency mask standard emerged of friends first, constituents far second.

Red alert to all voters: Expect a repeat catastrophe. Gubernatorial candidates, like clamoring children getting the scoop on their next year's teachers' expectations and weaknesses, can envision with impunity first class flights and wild abandonment on our time and dime.

Dianne Skripek

Hilton Head Island