nerd’s eye view

Sound and Fury

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God help me, I hate the Blue Angels. I didn’t always hate them - I remember some time back going to an actual air show on purpose to see the planes and watch those bad boys fly. But now, years later, I really hate them.

I hate what they do to traffic. Here in Seattle they close one of the bridges three days in a row and it makes traffic crazy. Yesterday, when I was driving back from Redmond, there was an accident on the one open bridge. It was hot. I have no air conditioning in the deluxe 85 Tercel. The 520 was a parking lot due to an accident on the bridge span. I just know it’s because someone was rubbernecking as the Blue Angels flew by and oh, whoops, right in to the car in front of them. I don’t really blame the driver, it’s, well, distracting when four really loud fighter jets swoosh past your windsheild. I blame the Blue Angels. I wanted to go home and those damn planes were in the way.

On top of that, I really hate the noise. Okay, it doesn’t go on all day, it goes for what, an hour? An hour and a half? But good god, it is so freakin’ loud. I mean, they’re fighter jets, right, and they’re swooping and whooshing past our house at low altitude so you can see them (even from your car) and it gives me a damn headache. They cut in to work time, lunch time, whatever it is you’re doing with midday and if you’re not in a bunker, it’s loud, loud, loud. I couldn’t help but think that it must sound like that in Bagdad every single day. They must be pretty tense, those Iraqis. Okay, I can’t blame the Blue Angels for tension levels in Iraq, but I can blame the US military and the Blue Angels are part of that.

I especially hate the politics around the Blue Angels, it’s just so obscene. The Navy states right up front that the Blue Angels are a recruiting tool. Teenage boys and girls are supposed to look at those things and think, “oh my god, I wanna do THAT.” Top Gun, doncha know. Maybe it would be better to let potential soldiers talk to soldiers that are currently serving in the “war on terror.” Hey, I’m not totally closed minded, they could talk to someone like the soldier that adopted that Iraqi kid with CP. Or soldiers who are clearing landmines in Afghanistan, I mean, that’s good work those people do, and it SAVES LIVES. I think potential recruits should see the bread and butter of the military, not just the sexy bits. Honest to god, that’s the stuff that should glorify the military, not some testosterone fueled killing machine.

I looked it up, a Blue Angel costs 21 million dollars. It costs about 1400 f0r one plane to fly one show, which runs for about an hour and a half. Another source said it costs about 10k to fly the entire show. I guess it’s simplistic to say that the government could spend that money on, oh, I dunno, building schools in Afghanistan. What if we say they could spend it on stuff like body armour for soldiers in Iraq? Or benefits for veterans? Then we’re not even splitting hairs about military spending. It’s still spent on soldiers, right?

Yeah, yeah, a strong military, and all that. Blah blah blah. Whatever. It doesn’t change the fact that having fighter jets blasting over your house every day for three days is really freakin’ disruptive. Don’t get up my nose about how this is some display of patriotism. Voting is patriotic. Voicing dissent is patriotic. Loving your country for its idealism and potential in spite of its current government is patriotic. Blowing dollar bills out the back of a noisy machine for three days is not patriotic, it’s just noise.

We’ve got another day of this before it’s back to business as usual in Seattle. I’ll be glad when it’s over.