When you don’t get your way, you usually think of some way to achieve your goal. These people went the whole hog and came up with solutions that made zero sense.
Recently, the news has been shoving controversy after controversy down the throats of its readers and viewers, debating whether or not a certain group’s reaction to an issue was an overreaction or not, such as the case when hundreds of Yale students confronted the school administration about its handling of a racially-tense situation or when logical women everywhere pointed out ŸDonald Trump’s misogynistic comments about ŸMegyn Kelly. Despite the importance and seriousness of both of these issues, let’s take a look at some overreactions over some significantly less controversial problems.
Meet ŸRobert Preston, a 1974 Army recruit who had dreamt of becoming a helicopter pilot. Unfortunately for Mr. Preston, his dream was cut short when he flunked his helicopter training. Preston was so peeved that he decided that he would appeal his removal by showing the Ÿpresident of the United States some of his flying skills.
As a part of his extraordinarily logical plan, Preston stole a military helicopter straight out of ŸFort Meade and beelined toward the *White House. Once he reached his goal, Preston kept the helicopter flying level for a full six minutes over the White House, fully expecting the president to walk outside and congratulate him on becoming an official pilot.
Unfortunately for Preston, he was instantly greeted by less-than-happy ŸSecret Service men. Upon seeing that he probably wasn’t going to meet the president, Preston jumped back into the helicopter and decided to flee, prompting several police helicopters to follow in pursuit. Preston actually pulled off maneuvering his helicopter extremely well and even forced one of the police helicopters to land. In fact, Preston was so impressed by his own maneuvers that he landed on the White House lawn again, certain that he would get a job. Instead, he was met with gunfire and decided that he should probably surrender.
Preston ended up serving a year in prison and not getting a helicopter job with the U.S. government.
Though it is undeniable that Preston somewhat overreacted to rejection, at the very least, he didn’t harm anyone else in the process. Unfortunately, not all overreactions are injury-free, as we can see when we examine ŸJeffrey Radle, who managed to almost kill himself trying to keep his wife Amanda from voting.
Yes, who knew that Jeffrey would go to such unnecessary lengths to prevent a measly single vote. In 2012, during the recall election of ŸGov. Scott Walker, Jeffrey was determined to keep his wife Amanda from voting for the Democratic challenger, Tom Barrett. Logically, he decided that jumping in front of her moving car would prevent her from getting to the polls. However, Amanda didn’t stop her car and ran him over. Instead of checking on her husband or voting, Amanda decided to report her husband’s unusual behavior to the police.
The Radles have since decided to divorce.
Overreactions don’t just occur for just major incidents. In the case of two 6 year olds attending elementary school in ŸTalbot County, Maryland, all it took was a pair of finger guns. The two children had been thoroughly enjoying a game of "cops and robbers" and pointing their imaginary weapons at each other when the school principal heard about the potentially dangerous event. In order to teach the children a lesson for using finger guns, the principal decided to suspend them, probably for being normal 6 year olds.
As you can see, all of these overreactions have a single predominant theme: supposedly minor situations that quickly evolve into major embarrassments. The next time you find yourself on the cusp of doing something questionable, think back to any of these events and their subsequent media attention.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. Have you ever overreacted like these people? Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
