A passenger on a Southwest flight from Dallas Love Field to New York notices a young soldier in uniform looking anxious. The solder tells a flight attendant he’s deploying for the first time. The attendant makes an announcement inviting passengers to write him encouraging notes and pass them forward. And the story goes viral. The plane spontaneously participates using napkins, receipts, and torn pages, until the soldier has a thick stack of messages. He tears up, carefully packs away every note, and thanks the flight attendant. The passenger sharing the story ends with a “freedom isn’t abstract once you meet the kid defending it” moral. And people absolutely love this story: I was flying Southwest from Dallas to New York. Three rows ahead of me, there was a young soldier in uniform. He looked barely…
