LOOK, UP IN THE SKY...
...it's a bird, it's some planes, it's
two idiot letters to the editor!
First, some background: last week, the U.S, Navy
Blue
Angels were in town to perform one of their typically mind-blowing,
chest-rattling flying exhibitions at the Wings Over Pittsburgh military air
show. On Thursday, two days before they were scheduled to appear, the Blue
Angels made three extended practice runs, working through their maneuvers and
getting a feel for the airspace over the far west corner of Allegheny County.
Because the Blue Angels were being hosted by the 911th Airlift Wing Air Force
Reserve Base, which sits just on the edge of Pittsburgh International Airport
property, the three practice runs -- from 11-12 in the morning, then from 1-2
and 3-4 in the afternoon -- shut down one major road and all airspace around the
airport, causing traffic jams, flight delays, re-routings, and, as you might
imagine, some frayed nerves and boiling temperatures for both road and sky
travelers.
Next, a side note: it is some small miracle that the two-day air-show resulted in neither fiery crashes nor tragic deaths. Because, as anyone who regularly watches the news in the summer months already knows, air shows are always a big, bad, extreme-video NBC reality show waiting to happen; they are the unfailingly unfortunate sites of frightening crashes and fiery explosions and mid-air collisions and all sorts of other terrible mishaps and horrifying spectacles and deadly conflagrations. The true news is when these things conclude without a fatality.
Now, back to the Blue Angels and the boiling temperatures: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mark Belko reported the whole story, from the practice runs to the shut downs, from the official explanations to the inevitable public outcry, in a crisp, well-written piece for Friday morning's paper. Included in the piece were the reactions of two people inconvenienced by the unanticipated (and at times unexplained) shut downs and delays. Sure, some yahoo from Cleveland vowed he'd never fly out of Pittsburgh again unless he was somehow compensated -- the news of his impending absence is surely compensation enough for everyone else -- but the other person quoted in the piece, a man waiting several hours for his wife and sons to return on a flight re-routed to Akron, was obviously (and understandably) frustrated, but also measured and thoughtful: It's been a huge inconvenience. You'd think they'd find a better time. It's like doing highway work in the middle of rush hour.
A reasonable response, I think. And hardly one to raise the ire of any reader or letter-to-the-editor writer with a rational mind and a simple sense of perspective. Which apparently eliminates John D. Messner of Moon and Edward T. Karsin of Robinson, both of whom live on the left side of the county but clearly think and write and almost certainly vote on the right, which these days seems much more like the wrong, side of the military-industrial-political complex.
First, Mr. Messner of Moon:
I consider the quotes of travelers inconvenienced by the Blue Angels' practice flights Thursday hypocritical. Just five years ago people scrambled to buy American flags -- right after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. They flew those flags for a while then hid them away, when patriotism ceased being fashionable.
Patriotism, of course, never ceased to be fashionable. Supporting the current administration ceased to be fashionable -- and, for that matter, ceased to be sane -- around the time we invaded a country that had nothing to do with the terrorists who sent us scrambling for all those flags. But I digress.
Now Pittsburgh was hosting the most elite aerial demonstration team in the world, as part of Wings Over Pittsburgh. That team is composed entirely of dedicated, ordinary citizens who volunteered to defend this country and our freedom, around the world, 24 hours a day.
And Lord knows nothing defends our freedom like stunt flying at air shows.
(I should pause here to note -- and so also to clarify for the reason- and humor-challenged neo-cons who occasionally stumble upon this site while Googling themselves or their favorite causes -- that I'm a big fan of the Blue Angels, that I always loved watching them fly in air shows when I was a kid and couldn't just look them up on the internet, and that I have nothing but awe and admiration for the precision and talent and excellence they display. That said, I'm still not sure how their cool tricks defend either my country or my freedom.)
Shame on those who have conveniently forgotten what happened to us in 2001.
You mean that we were attacked by Al-Qaeda and not by Iraq?
So what if they had to sit in traffic or were delayed on the tarmac?
Says some guy who was probably sitting at home and watching Fox News Channel.
They are still able to travel freely because of the service and sacrifice of servicemen and -women like the Blue Angels -- professionals who do their jobs because of honor and duty, putting country (and others) before self.
This is undeniably true. Those people stuck in traffic and at the airport and in Akron (God help them) are indeed protected by people like the Blue Angels. But not, in fact, by the Blue Angels. Especially when the Blue Angels are practicing for an exhibition at some silly air show.
Though Mr. Karsin of Robinson would no doubt disagree:
I cannot believe people would complain about being stuck in traffic, stuck at another airport, stuck in the sky or whatever as the Navy's Blue Angels practiced for the Wings Over Pittsburgh air show.
I, for one, can believe it. (Especially those poor people stuck in whatever, which does not sound like much fun at all.) What I can not believe is that someone actually believes that the cost of freedom includes being stuck on a closed road or in a shut-down airport or on a re-routed airplane, without warning, and without possibility of complaint, to accommodate the practice of a couple of stunt pilots. Yeah, I know: a couple of military stunt pilots. But they're still stunt pilots. It's not like they were practicing for an assault on an Al Qaeda bunker in Afghanistan. Or for some mission even more important to our national security -- you know, like bombing a flag burning or a gay wedding.
Do these complainants have a son, a daughter, a father or a brother in Iraq or Afghanistan?
I'll bet some of them do. Does that mean they are allowed to complain? Or should they still shut up and be ashamed of themselves? If they complain, are they somehow putting that son or daughter or father or brother in harm's way? If so, is what they're doing as bad as those treasonous articles in the New York Times? By reporting their shameful, treasonous complaints, is Mark Belko a just another treasonous member of the stinking liberal media? It's all so complicated.
I thank God that men such as the Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunderbirds...
Surely you meant to write men and women. Right?
...can show us their abilities to perform under what have to be strenuous physical circumstances. Some have died showing us these flying capabilities.
And what a sacrifice that was: dying for the sake of showing off some impressive flying capabilities, providing a few cheap thrills for a cowed, compliant audience, and earning a little positive PR for the military.
Men and women are dying daily to allow us to be able to view how well trained these pilots are, and you complain? For shame!
Yep. That's what they're dying for. Duty and honor and God and the freedom to view air shows. God bless America!
Thank God, or whatever deity you choose to worship, or even if you don't choose to worship, that these men and women are here, there and everywhere, to make sure that you have the freedom to gripe so insignificantly over a few hours' delay.
Because as long as our brave sons (and daughters) are dying in a godforsaken war they really don't need to be fighting half way around the world, their comrades in arms and air shows and flight suits can be practicing their precision spins and climbs and dipsy-doodles over here. And if you don't like that, you liberal hippie moonbat commie bastards, then you can go to Canada or France or wherever it is you un-American pussies go to live and talk about how much you hate America. And the Blue Angels. And the God Who created them all.
It's wonderful, really. This whole, pervasive, you can't criticize the military no matter what they do, not if they senselessly delay and disrupt your entire day, and not even if they may have raped or tortured or killed innocent civilians, because they're fighting for your freedom! apologist attitude. It would have been interesting to see if Mr. Messner and Mr. Karsin would have been so defiantly red-white-and-whatever-they-do if, say, one of those Blue Angels planes -- which were practicing and performing in both Moon and Robinson airspace last week -- had clipped a wing and crashed to the ground and turned their (no doubt over-taxed) homes into great big balls of patriotic, freedom-loving flame. Do you think they'd have been as quick to invoke the glories of strenuous service and selfless sacrifice?
No, neither do I.
Next, a side note: it is some small miracle that the two-day air-show resulted in neither fiery crashes nor tragic deaths. Because, as anyone who regularly watches the news in the summer months already knows, air shows are always a big, bad, extreme-video NBC reality show waiting to happen; they are the unfailingly unfortunate sites of frightening crashes and fiery explosions and mid-air collisions and all sorts of other terrible mishaps and horrifying spectacles and deadly conflagrations. The true news is when these things conclude without a fatality.
Now, back to the Blue Angels and the boiling temperatures: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mark Belko reported the whole story, from the practice runs to the shut downs, from the official explanations to the inevitable public outcry, in a crisp, well-written piece for Friday morning's paper. Included in the piece were the reactions of two people inconvenienced by the unanticipated (and at times unexplained) shut downs and delays. Sure, some yahoo from Cleveland vowed he'd never fly out of Pittsburgh again unless he was somehow compensated -- the news of his impending absence is surely compensation enough for everyone else -- but the other person quoted in the piece, a man waiting several hours for his wife and sons to return on a flight re-routed to Akron, was obviously (and understandably) frustrated, but also measured and thoughtful: It's been a huge inconvenience. You'd think they'd find a better time. It's like doing highway work in the middle of rush hour.
A reasonable response, I think. And hardly one to raise the ire of any reader or letter-to-the-editor writer with a rational mind and a simple sense of perspective. Which apparently eliminates John D. Messner of Moon and Edward T. Karsin of Robinson, both of whom live on the left side of the county but clearly think and write and almost certainly vote on the right, which these days seems much more like the wrong, side of the military-industrial-political complex.
First, Mr. Messner of Moon:
I consider the quotes of travelers inconvenienced by the Blue Angels' practice flights Thursday hypocritical. Just five years ago people scrambled to buy American flags -- right after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. They flew those flags for a while then hid them away, when patriotism ceased being fashionable.
Patriotism, of course, never ceased to be fashionable. Supporting the current administration ceased to be fashionable -- and, for that matter, ceased to be sane -- around the time we invaded a country that had nothing to do with the terrorists who sent us scrambling for all those flags. But I digress.
Now Pittsburgh was hosting the most elite aerial demonstration team in the world, as part of Wings Over Pittsburgh. That team is composed entirely of dedicated, ordinary citizens who volunteered to defend this country and our freedom, around the world, 24 hours a day.
And Lord knows nothing defends our freedom like stunt flying at air shows.
(I should pause here to note -- and so also to clarify for the reason- and humor-challenged neo-cons who occasionally stumble upon this site while Googling themselves or their favorite causes -- that I'm a big fan of the Blue Angels, that I always loved watching them fly in air shows when I was a kid and couldn't just look them up on the internet, and that I have nothing but awe and admiration for the precision and talent and excellence they display. That said, I'm still not sure how their cool tricks defend either my country or my freedom.)
Shame on those who have conveniently forgotten what happened to us in 2001.
You mean that we were attacked by Al-Qaeda and not by Iraq?
So what if they had to sit in traffic or were delayed on the tarmac?
Says some guy who was probably sitting at home and watching Fox News Channel.
They are still able to travel freely because of the service and sacrifice of servicemen and -women like the Blue Angels -- professionals who do their jobs because of honor and duty, putting country (and others) before self.
This is undeniably true. Those people stuck in traffic and at the airport and in Akron (God help them) are indeed protected by people like the Blue Angels. But not, in fact, by the Blue Angels. Especially when the Blue Angels are practicing for an exhibition at some silly air show.
Though Mr. Karsin of Robinson would no doubt disagree:
I cannot believe people would complain about being stuck in traffic, stuck at another airport, stuck in the sky or whatever as the Navy's Blue Angels practiced for the Wings Over Pittsburgh air show.
I, for one, can believe it. (Especially those poor people stuck in whatever, which does not sound like much fun at all.) What I can not believe is that someone actually believes that the cost of freedom includes being stuck on a closed road or in a shut-down airport or on a re-routed airplane, without warning, and without possibility of complaint, to accommodate the practice of a couple of stunt pilots. Yeah, I know: a couple of military stunt pilots. But they're still stunt pilots. It's not like they were practicing for an assault on an Al Qaeda bunker in Afghanistan. Or for some mission even more important to our national security -- you know, like bombing a flag burning or a gay wedding.
Do these complainants have a son, a daughter, a father or a brother in Iraq or Afghanistan?
I'll bet some of them do. Does that mean they are allowed to complain? Or should they still shut up and be ashamed of themselves? If they complain, are they somehow putting that son or daughter or father or brother in harm's way? If so, is what they're doing as bad as those treasonous articles in the New York Times? By reporting their shameful, treasonous complaints, is Mark Belko a just another treasonous member of the stinking liberal media? It's all so complicated.
I thank God that men such as the Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunderbirds...
Surely you meant to write men and women. Right?
...can show us their abilities to perform under what have to be strenuous physical circumstances. Some have died showing us these flying capabilities.
And what a sacrifice that was: dying for the sake of showing off some impressive flying capabilities, providing a few cheap thrills for a cowed, compliant audience, and earning a little positive PR for the military.
Men and women are dying daily to allow us to be able to view how well trained these pilots are, and you complain? For shame!
Yep. That's what they're dying for. Duty and honor and God and the freedom to view air shows. God bless America!
Thank God, or whatever deity you choose to worship, or even if you don't choose to worship, that these men and women are here, there and everywhere, to make sure that you have the freedom to gripe so insignificantly over a few hours' delay.
Because as long as our brave sons (and daughters) are dying in a godforsaken war they really don't need to be fighting half way around the world, their comrades in arms and air shows and flight suits can be practicing their precision spins and climbs and dipsy-doodles over here. And if you don't like that, you liberal hippie moonbat commie bastards, then you can go to Canada or France or wherever it is you un-American pussies go to live and talk about how much you hate America. And the Blue Angels. And the God Who created them all.
It's wonderful, really. This whole, pervasive, you can't criticize the military no matter what they do, not if they senselessly delay and disrupt your entire day, and not even if they may have raped or tortured or killed innocent civilians, because they're fighting for your freedom! apologist attitude. It would have been interesting to see if Mr. Messner and Mr. Karsin would have been so defiantly red-white-and-whatever-they-do if, say, one of those Blue Angels planes -- which were practicing and performing in both Moon and Robinson airspace last week -- had clipped a wing and crashed to the ground and turned their (no doubt over-taxed) homes into great big balls of patriotic, freedom-loving flame. Do you think they'd have been as quick to invoke the glories of strenuous service and selfless sacrifice?
No, neither do I.
Posted: Tue - July 11, 2006 at 01:46 PM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:49 PM
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