Our Own Skutnik Moment

In his State of the Union this speech this year, Barak Obama, just like every President since Ronald Reagan, gave us yet another “Skutnik” moment

 In his 1982 address to Congress, the Great Communicator invited Lenny Skutnik to sit next to Nancy during the speech. As he wrapped up he suggested that one doesn’t need to look to the history books to find American heroes, they are all around us. At that point he directed his attention to the galley where Nancy and Lenny sat and proceeded to tell the story how, just two weeks earlier, Lenny Skutnik dove into the frozen Potomac River to rescue Priscilla Tirado, a flight attendant on the Air Florida flight that had just crashed into the 14^th Street bridge in DC. Since then every president, Dem and Repub, has repeated this State of the Union gesture of recognizing the heroes among us.

Today, at his State of the County address, Ken Ulman had his own“Skutnik” moment. Ken singled out police officer Nick Bingham and firefighter Josh Angelo for their heroism during Tropical Storm Lee. First they rescued a man stranded in his pick up in the floodwaters. Shortly after getting the man to safety, the truck was washed away. Later the same dynamic duo helped rescue fellow rescuers who got into trouble when they attempted to conduct a search in the raging Patapsco.

I think Lenny would approve.