They Weren’t Coming for Us
It was too easy to imagine that they were
Last Saturday was cold and clear in the small town outside of Boston where I live. My wife and I were walking around town, picking stuff up. Nothing unusual.
Suddenly, there was a huge noise and the ground began to shake. The noise came from right above us. We looked up and saw, felt, and heard, streaking through the sky at low altitudes, one, two, three, four advanced American fighter jets, following close behind each other. Their speed was amazing, It almost felt like an earthquake. It made me feel so helpless and vulnerable. I wanted to dive under a building. They were FA-18 Super Hornets.
My wife looked scared and stunned. A man standing near us smiled and said, “Don’t worry, they’re on our side. I wasn’t completely reassured.
I never felt threatened. It seemed unlikely that those planes were scrambling to intercept planes from another country, or that another 9-11 type attack was happening. What they were doing was flying from the local, seldom-used Air Force base to fly over the stadium where the Army-Navy football game was going to take place. A usual part of the game’s tradition.
After the planes vanished, which took about thirty seconds, my first thought was that I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be living in Ukraine or Gaza where frightening planes roar through the sky and they are not on your side. They are coming to kill destroy your country and maybe kill you. How does anyone recover from that kind of trauma?
Two days later, I was meeting with several members of the Life Long Learning group where I have been a member for about five years. The planes had flown over many towns on their way to the game. Many people had similar reactions to mine. The strongest feelings were that it was time to end the wars and stop spending millions on death and destruction.
Why haven’t enough people learned that wars accomplish nothing? They only lead to more wars later. Humans have learned this, but it hasn’t changed any behaviors.
No one thought that anything would change now, except maybe that things need to get worse before they get better. We need to appreciate that so far, we are safe. But that safety seems fragile and endangered. We felt that it’s up to us, the old folks, to make sure our kids take these threats seriously. We have allowed them to rise to this level. We have to drive them away before those planes come after us.
Army won the game, 17-11. I read that they stopped Navy inches from the goal on the last play. I didn’t watch the game. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.
Song lyric of the day:
… Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships lying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones
— Neil Young
Or, you can listen to the theme from Top Gun, which glorifies this craziness.
I graduated from my Alma Mater university going to classes in the "College of Life Long Learning" and have never heard it spoken of since 1976.
I am glad such opportunities still exist. Is your group scholastically associated? Do other States have these groups that you may know of?
I so enjoyed my learning in that college which was associated then with Wayne State University here in Michigan.
I would join a group like that even now at 75 years old.
Thank you
Hello, from California. There are 4 current and former air force bases surrounding Sacramento County, and two air shows a year, so we're pretty used to jets flying in formation and doing aerial acrobats, so I'm very familiar with the noises and vibrations you describe, even after 62 years living here I still notice them.
I share your feelings on war and my only comment is: follow the money. War is very, very, profitable to the weapons and munitions manufacturers. Therefor, due to their huge donations to some profiteering politicians, wars will not go away. At least not until we get all money out of politics. One of the arguments for giving politicians a decent income (currently $174,000 annually plus benefits (health insurance and a great pension plan) and full expenses) was this would allow them a decent living in one of the Country's most expensive living areas). This would discourage taking bribes. What was not considered was that greed would become socially acceptable, beginning in the 1980's. Greed is now so entrenched in Washington, DC and all the State capitols that I'm not sure, short of another great depression how we'll get out of it.