Opinion: Gov. Arnold, who played a hero, salutes Capt. Sully, who was one

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Now that about 87.7% of America’s towns and cities have had separate ‘He’s a Hero’ ceremonies for Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed his US Air passenger jet where it didn’t belong, it was California’s turn Tuesday.

Between hearing President Obama talk every day about how awful our economy is and watching a shiny airliner slowly sink in freezing New York waters, pretty much no one wants to go anywhere ever again. Unless they have their own Air Force One.

But that didn’t dampen a groundbound American crowd’s enthusiasm for a home-state hero -- ‘Sully! Sully! Sully!’ they chanted -- especially a humble, short-spoken one who’s kinda like an airborne Gary Cooper without the six-shooter. Plus, everyone should note, Sully has the trim moustache of a real hero.

With the music from ‘Top Gun’ playing, the California governor, who has played heroes in his day, and numerous feuding legislators took time out from not solving the state’s budget crisis to attend the ceremony. Schwarzenegger took 994 words to introduce Sullenberger, the real hero, who took 207 words to give his entire speech.

In their own way, the remarks of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Capt. Sullenberger are revealing of each speaker. So we decided to publish everything that each one said. Get your Wednesday started right.

Schwarzenegger:

Well, thank you very much for the nice introduction. And I want to say thank you to all of you for being here today, especially to our various different legislators -- Sen. Steinberg and Speaker Bass, Assemblyman Villines and Sen. DeSaulnier and Assemblyman Torlakson, Assemblywoman Buchanan and, of course, there are many others that I see here in the audience. In case I don’t mention someone, don’t feel upset, it’s not on purpose; I just don’t see all of them, but I know there are more here.

I also want to say thank you very much to the first lady, to my great wife, Maria Shriver, for being here today and being such a great, great partner. (Applause) I want to thank Dale Rogers for doing such a great job always for us and having such great, great energy. (Applause)

And then, of course, I want to say a big thank you, of course, to Capt. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and his wonderful wife, Laurie, and his children, Kate and Kelly, for being here today. Let’s give them a big, big hand. (Applause)

Today we are honoring a great international hero, a national hero and a California hero, and Capt. Sullenberger is such a hero. And I just want to say there’s a big difference between a movie hero -- and yes, I’ve done many movies -- and a real hero. And this is a real hero, so let’s give him a big, big, big hand. (Applause)

Now, as governor, there are many things that we one can be proud of, and I’m very proud of....

...California, because it’s the greatest place in the world. I’m proud of Disneyland and Yosemite and all the things that we have, Hollywood and the beautiful Pacific Ocean and the list goes on and on -- our high-tech industry, our greatest university system and so on and so forth.

But today I’m most proud that we are the home of one of the greatest heroes, ‘Sully’ Sullenberger. And I tell you something, that this man is extraordinary because, when you just think -- and I’m sure that a lot of you have seen the pictures and have seen the videos and the voice recordings and all of those kind of things.

I mean, that is really extraordinary to think about, when you’re a captain, or a pilot, I should say, of a plane and you take off and then three minutes later you find out that your engines are dead and that you have only two minutes left to land that plane.

And there are not many choices there, because you couldn’t get back to the airport, so the only two choices, which is one, to land on top of buildings, or the other one, to land in the Hudson River.

Now, two minutes he had in time to land this plane and to make all of those decisions. I mean, it takes me more than two minutes to just choose my tie every morning, just to show to you.

Two minutes he had in time. And when you look and listen to the voice recordings you will see how calm and collected this man was, totally in control of the situation and he knew that he had this 700,000-pound airplane and he had the responsibility in his hands of 155 people.

And then he landed this plane safely in the Hudson River, in the middle of the winter. And not only that but then he told them calmly to get out of the plane and to step on the side of the wings of the airplane. And then, after they have done that, he then walked twice up and down the aisle -- did not leave the plane, walked up and down the aisle twice to check out if everyone is safe and outside the plane.

And then he stepped out of the plane while the water was just shooting inside the plane.

That’s the kind of thing, when you listen to the recordings, you can see how calmly he has done all of those things and he has saved all those people and they then came to the rescue with boats and all of this.

And then, when you see him at the inauguration -- we were hanging out at the inauguration of President Obama and I said to him, I said, ‘This is incredible, the work you do.’

He says, ‘No, no, calm down. I’ve just done my job.’ And every interview that I have seen and speeches that he has given, he talks about, very humbly, ‘I’ve just done my job.’ To me that is extraordinary.

So this is why we’re here today, this is why I’ve asked him to come here to the state Capitol, to come here so we can celebrate this heroism, because it’s a great inspiration not only to the grownups but especially to the children.

And there’s also a reason why we asked him specifically today to come here, because today is a very important day. Those legislators upstairs -- they are negotiating and working on a budget -- need a great hero in the state Capitol. They need a great hero in the state Capitol. That should inspire all of the legislators, for them to be heroic today and to pass this budget. So there are a lot of jobs, a lot of responsibilities that you have here today.

So let’s give him again a big hand and let’s give him some of those gifts. Hold on a second. (Applause) The first thing we have here is the official governor’s jacket. I’m going to put his on you. (Applause) All right, very nice. Looking good, looking good.

Sullenberger: Thank you very much.

Governor: Absolutely. Then we have the flag that was flown over the Capitol here, with a license plate that says hero, ‘California Hero.’ That’s another gift that I wanted to give you. And then we have -- where is our proclamation? Oh yes, the proclamation you will get in the office. So congratulations again. Let’s give him a big hand. (Applause)

Sullenberger:

Thank you, Governor. I have a reputation for being concise; I hope I don’t disappoint you today. (Laughter)

Gov. Schwarzenegger, First Lady Maria Shriver, Madame Speaker, members of the Senate and the Assembly, honored guests;

I am honored to be before you today in this historic place to accept your recognition and your thanks for the events of Jan. 15. On behalf of the other four crew members of Flight 1549 and also on behalf of the many thousands of aviation professionals whose daily devotion to duty keeps air travel safe, I gratefully accept this recognition.

In reading the thousands of letters, cards and e-mails that I’ve received, it is clear to me that the events of Jan. 15 have captured the imaginations of people around the world. Their words make it clear that we are all searching for good news. We are looking for reasons to hope again and we are looking for reassurance that the things that we hold dear are safe and that our ideals are still true.

I stand before you today to tell you that our ideals are still true and, when we remain true to our ideals and work together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. Thank you.’

He’d never make it in politics with such short-winded talks.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: Chesley Sullenberger speaks at the State Capitol. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press