An eight-hour flight from Los Angeles to Los Angeles

A jet heading from Los Angeles to Tokyo turned around four hours into the flight and returned to LAX. The crew discovered that an unauthorized person had boarded the flight, so they chose to return to Los Angeles.

What one person does can affect multitudes of people.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Sealver Siliga went to dinner with some friends on Christmas Eve. He asked the manager how many employees were still working, then left a $1,000 tip to ensure that each received $100 for Christmas.

By contrast, an employee burned a bagel in a St. Louis airport restaurant Tuesday night. Hundreds of travelers were forced to evacuate into 11-degree cold.

My wife and I recently saw Darkest Hour, a fascinating depiction of Winston Churchill’s leadership in the early days of World War II. As the film shows, government advisors pled with the new prime minister to negotiate for peace with Hitler. England’s troops were trapped at Dunkirk, on the western coast of France, as the Germans advanced.

But Churchill ordered the largest evacuation in military history, sending nearly a thousand vessels to rescue 338,226 Allied soldiers. Describing Churchill’s rhetoric, President John F. Kennedy said that he “mobilized the English language and sent it into battle,” turning his government from pacifism to courage.

“Being a better person” is our top resolution

In a world that is more interconnected than ever before, what we do today can affect humanity for years to come.

The good news is that we’re becoming more aware of our need to be moral. According to USA Today, a new poll shows that “being a better person” is the most popular New Year’s resolution for 2018. It was also the No. 1 resolution last year.

The bad news is that we’re still not concerned enough about our morality. The Marist Poll cited by USA Today does indeed rank morality at the top of its list. However, this was the choice of only 12 percent of responders and tied with “losing…