During his early teens, a passenger jet made an improbable crash-landing 
at the Sioux City airport, and Finkle-McGraw, along with several other members 
of his Boy Scout troop who had been hastily mobilized by their scoutmaster, was 
standing by the runway along with every ambulance, fireman, doctor, and nurse 
from a radius of several counties. The uncanny efficiency with which the locals 
responded to the crash was widely publicized and became the subject of a 
made-for-TV movie. Finkle-McGraw couldn't understand why. They had simply done 
what was reasonable and humane under the circumstances; why did people from 
other parts of the country find this so difficult to understand?