H.G. Wells wrote of a Victorian gentleman visiting the far and distant future, one in which society had devolved into two separate species, the Morlocks – who live and labor under the earth, keeping the world’s machinery and infrastructure intact, and the Eloi, a “child-like, frail group, living a banal life of ease on the surface of the earth..” who, “(having) solved all problems that required strength, intelligence, or virtue, have slowly become dissolute and naive. They are… smaller than modern humans, having shoulder-length curly hair, chins that ran to a point, large eyes, small ears, and small mouths with bright red thin lips. They are of sub-human intelligence, though apparently intelligent enough to speak, and they have a primitive language. They do not perform much work…”
No, they do not perform much work, because they apparently teach school children in San Francisco (which is good work while it lasts):
I have strong feelings about the Blue Angels’ annual visit. I do not like it.
There it is, sufficient intelligence to speak a primitive language.
I find it to be a loud, violating display of military power that goes against what I stand for.
Unicorns and rainbows, chiefly. Which are being loudly violated!
Beyond that, I wonder why the show comes and goes with so little questioning and scrutiny in a city that likes to coin itself as a progressive, philosophical and peace-loving oasis.
A peace-loving oasis in a troubled and strife-ridden world. Just don’t, you know: Carry that thought a millimeter farther, Rich. You might not like where it leads.
The Boeing F/A-18 Hornet is a fierce fighter and agile attacker. It is a sleek, supersonic machine, but how can the onlookers so easily compartmentalize its muscle and might from its purpose and past?
The Boeing F/A-18 Hornet is indeed a fine machine, and agile. But it is not fierce. Machines cannot be fierce. The people who fly them can and must be fierce. In order to protect child-like, frail groups of people, living banal lives of ease in peace-loving oases. There. I finished the thought for you. You’re welcome.
It is not just a spectacle or awesome piece of ingenuity; it is a major tool of combat utilized in many recent conflicts around the globe. Who in the crowds this weekend will wonder about this fact?
No one but school teachers are apparently sensitive or intelligent to put two and two together. A spectacular, awesome piece of ingenuity – unlike, say, Solyndra – can be a flying weapon of war might actually be used in… wait for it: A war! And since sensitive and intelligent school teachers don’t like the Blue Angels, or war , or other painful things that they’d rather not think about, other people shouldn’t be able to see them either.
At least, not in San Francisco.
Are we so distant from the wars waged that we can just sit back and enjoy the beauty of the Angels’ acrobatics without pondering the symbolism behind the show?
Actually, yes. Yes you are. You’re welcome.
If the F/A-18 is not the emblem of war and violence, then what is?
Too easy, teach. It’s an airplane. Quite a nice one, actually. Flown by marvelously skilled aviators who have sworn an oath under great personal risk to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
I know. That old thing.
I think some veterans will do the wondering. Those who have lived in a war-torn land will. And I will.
You’re half right, teacher: Here’s your participation trophy! You are a very unique and special snowflake, and all the rest of us salute you.
During last year’s Fleet Week, my students charged to our classroom’s rattling windows at the first omniscient roar. With mouths gaping and eyes wide, they gazed out in hopes of seeing “The Angels” shoot overhead. We happened to be talking in class about our society’s epidemic of violence and its many mediums of proliferation. As the students settled back into their seats, one eighth-grade girl softly said, “I don’t get it. Why are they here?”
If only there were someone who could tell her, help her – and the rest of us – understand what an “omniscient roar” is. An actual eight grade teacher perhaps, someone qualified to teach her about something more useful and age-appropriate than “our society’s epidemic of violence and its many mediums of proliferation.”
But no.
My own learning experience that same week was even more ironic and thought provoking. I was sitting in a seminar on the Holocaust at the University of San Francisco, completely mesmerized by the personal testimony of William Lowenberg, a Holocaust survivor now recently deceased. As he closed his incredible presentation, reminding us of how important it is to investigate and teach about the past, the Blue Angels flew over Lone Mountain, interrupting with their own thunderous narrative. I wondered what associations such sounds from the sky had in Lowenberg’s mind. I could not fathom the gravity.
Of that, I have absolutely no doubt. Because, while there were no FA-18s flying overhead the concentration camps in World War II, there were P-51s and P-47s, flown by the forefathers of those men whose noise and valor you despise, Mr.Hill. To Mr Lowenberg, the sound of their heirs overhead very likely associated in his mind with life and liberty.
The annual Fleet Week is not an optional event for Bay Area residents. It’s not a gun show we can choose to go to or a violent movie we can choose to watch. The harrowing howls are for all to hear and the swooping jets are for all to see. Who makes that decision for us? And are they considering the implications and repercussions?
Your elected representatives and their bureaucratic functionaries, you silly ass. Who did you think?
My suggestion: Put it on the ballot, like we do everything else. That way everyone can be a part of the decision, air-show enthusiasts and those who flee town alike. The unintended effects and deeper meanings need to be considered if we wish to live in a considerate city.
A ballot, a ballot! Let’s everyone have a ballot. About everything. And then a spanking.
And then, well: You know.
And since I’m channeling Monty Python here, this seems as suitable a wrapper as anything else.
San Francisco: “T’is a silly place.”
Lex, I sure hope you feel better…I suppose its one way to deal with your tensions…
…another way is to get a few laughs reading further on looney San Fran in the October 2011 issue of The American Spectator.. an article by Gerald Nachman entitled ” Fogged In” is worth a read…its not yet up on the AmSpec site but should be shortly until then a few brewskis…for health are recommended. Best
I’ve been on Facebook a bit too much lately. I keep looking for the Like, Like, Like, Like button.
PS And speaking of San Fransisco being a little … unusual, I guess that would explain the fact that they’ve gotten away with this until now. Looks like those teachers might just be starting to enter the 21st century. If we’re lucky.
Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe…
They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish. They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy.
And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.
The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you.
And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.
-Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies
“An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct.”
I don’t wish to appear chauvinistic, but I guess I’m about to. Isn’t that how *women* are supposed to think? I keep hearing this — that she thinks its her fault the marriage went south because she just didn’t do enough, or that the kid throwing a tantrum is her fault because she was too strict or too in a hurry, or that his beating on her is her fault because she just couldn’t make good biscuits or whatever-failure-can-be-conjured-up.
All of which are, of course, complete codswallop. Yet *something* makes them think this way, and it can’t be entirely due to hormones and chromosomes.
If a San Francisco liberal thinks in this manner too, then there is likely an environmental component at work.
The good news is that means it can be isolated, identified, and eradicated. The bad news is it will take three generations to do.
– Max
In less academic terms, The “Wacky Sitcom Mixup” School of Foreign Policy.
…IIRC, in the early days of the war in Afghanistan (something I’m sure Ms. Snowflake opposed)a Taliban column was bearing down on a small village that had already welcomed the Allies – which meant that when the Taliban got there, there would be retribution of the charmingly medieval variety that they specialize in. There were US personnel there – two Army Special Forces troops, with a laser designator and a radio. No other ground forces were within hours, and the only air support available was a single F-18. Those two men would have gone down fighting to the last round if they’d had to in order to protect the people of that village, but by the grace of God there was a trained, motivated Naval Aviator in that Hornet who was as willing to lay down his life for those unknown Afghanis as the Army was. Between those three men, they pretty much wiped out the Taliban and ended the threat for a long while to come.
So tell me, Ms. Snowflake: would you rather those people have died, tortured and stoned and shot and beheaded, because you disapprove of the airplane and its sadly necessary raison d’etre? Would you have stood there and told them that it was all right, that their deaths would be unfortunate, but better they die than the plane does its job? Oh, and another thing: you’re not upset about those students being fascinated by the Angels because it disrupts their studies. You’re upset because you know that when kids meet a sharp, squared-away professional who can tell them why these things need to be done, and why determined men and women with integrity and courage will always be needed to do them…the kids understand.
And when they understand the professionals….they understand you.
Mike
Well communicated, real word scenario. None like that where unicorns thrive and rainbows have real pots of gold (stolen from the rich!) always and forever more!
Speaking of which: The part of the brain that helps you distinguish between imagination and reality! So…how big is her PCS fold?
+1
This was a good read with the counterpoints so eloquent.
Looks like most of the comments are taking Mr. Hill to task. You should add yours, Lex.
From Boston, where the Revolution that gave birth to our nation, I have a comment for Mr. Hill -
F&ck you and the sorry arse horse you rode in on…..Pack your bags, go live in Sweden or some other place where pointed heads fools like you belong.
The Blue Angels are our best, and you Sir, are not. That sound you heard was the sound of FREEDOM, something that you fail to understand….Americans LOVE the sound of Freedom.
Now, now – give em credit here. He didnt say the simple statement “War is bad” and then start swearing at everyone he disagrees with. He asked questions, heart felt and brainless questions for sure, but at least he was polite about it… Kinda out a character, maybe a glass or two too many shiraz at lunch I think. Very mello.
Ungrateful bastards. That’s what they are in San Fran. Little-brained, left-wing morons whose bleeding hearts and diarrhea mouths make we wish they would try to found their shinny, happy utopia elsewhere.
I’m so tired of this view of our military that these idiots possess. If not for those fine boys driving Hornets and Falcons and Mudhens and Eagles, a lot of ground troops would be dead meat. But that’s right, in today’s world, those ground troops are just creating more terrorists, right? They are building an empire, right? They are oppressors, right? Baby-killers, right?
if not for those folks, the Islamic barbarians at the gate would put you to death and laugh as your head rolled off. I hate to paraphrase that line from “A Few Good Men,” an anti-military screed if there ever was one, but I wish they would just appreciate living under the blanket of freedom I and so many gave them for 28 years and move on.
i wish these people would see evil for what it is. Clutching your ankles and saying “thank you sir, may I have another” is not a defense. It’s these excellent men flying these machines that guarantee his right to spout his idiocy.
Grizz, could you lay off all the flowery stuff and just tell us plain what you think?
much fun to be had in the comments, both in making one of your own, or twisting the tail of the stupid in relies…. it’s a target rich environment.
and don’t forget you can up and down ding too. feel free to skew the curve!
“Well, I mean – BLIMEY! If there was a war, and it’s a big war, well, somebody could get hurt! So I’d like to go home, sir.”
– Monty Python
“And are they considering the implications and repercussions?”
Indeed.
As a long gone resident of the Bay Area I have always secretly longed for the Navy to raise the middle finger to San Francisco and to say “adios, we’ll go where we are appreciated”
And then sit back and watch the merchants and tax collectors complain about how much money they have lost by losing Fleet Week.
Joke ‘em if they can’t take a f$&k.
I actually lived across the bay when the navy did give the entire Bay area the finger and recommended to the BRAC that all navy installations in the Bay area be shut down. I actually lived in the HASC Chairman’s district in Oakland. Vallejo, Alameda, Treasure Island, Oak Knoll, Moffet Field and all the rest and this was as the Army did the same with the Presidio, Oakland Army Base, Fort Mason and all the rest. It was as if the military had taken a wire brush to the Bay area. I always thought that Herb Caen had a huge insight back when he was alive and writing for the S/F Chronicle and referred to the City as Baghdad by the Bay.
Yup, recall those days as well. Also remember during Iraq 1 SF declared itself a sanctuary city for deserters. afterwards SF wanted to give a parade with/for the returning troops. The DOD (or whoever makes those decisions) said uh, something like “no”.
I was there for all that; The Doctor wearing Army green at the Presidio at Letterman Army Medical Center and I across the Bay at Alameda. After years of uninterrupted posturing, bitching and moaning by the Ruling Class and their sycophants about the “mean” military, yet quietly pushing (well mainly then-SF Mayor Diana Feinstein) to get more military basing (and $$) in SF and the area behind the scenes, all of us who saw what was going on were pretty amused. The shock when BRAC I said “we’re outta here” was palpable. “You can’t do that!” The Ruling Class screamed. “Oh, yes we can,” said DOD. Of great irony was the fact that one of the biggest ethnic/racial minority ( I mean “diverse”)employers in then-Rep Ron Dellums (D/Marxist-Havana)Congressional District was NAS Alameda’s NADEP. Bet all of those put out of job, in part, by his non-stop war against, er, war were plenty grateful for all his help.
The complaining about Fleet Week has gone on since it was restarted. It will always go on. As long as the Fleet comes and spends money, I’m betting it will continue to go on. Righteous indignation will spew forth, and the Embarcadero will continue to be jammed, as will the Bay, by people coming to see the Blues.
BTW, BRAC I’s biggest fail was the fact that none of the services talked to one another about what they were going to close, when and how. The Army thought the Navy was going to stay in the Bay Area and pick up the slack for active duty, Reserve and retiree medical care, for example. The Navy assumed the Army was going to stay and take care of it. The Air Force presumed that both were going to stay, so, no problems!
Like most of SF, the wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead.
What’s the country song? We need to change the lyrics, and sing it in a gender-neutral voice.
“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be p*ssies!”
URR, that is soooooo insensitive to Kitteh Cats. Kittehs do many useful things. Gay Bay rezidents just hold the place down and provide stuff for the San Andreas to wreck.
I wonder if Nimitz would have wanted to buried there if he had known how the place was going to turn out.
QM,
Mine doesn’t. Except for grabbing the occasional mouse, which he makes great show of, he is a net minus. And a jackass.
Oh, and Lex, you have been more or less cross posted. Hope you don’t mind. (You got credit where credit was due.)
http://blog.usni.org/2011/10/06/teach-your-children-well/
Hmmmm….I can think of a couple of things that need to ‘go on the ballot’…..freaking valid teacher evals and getting rid of tenure and the dead wood it allows to hang around our schools.
At least the idiot isn’t teaching in one of our DOD schools.
“You are a very unique and special snowflake…”
Dang. Forgot to refrain from drinking coffee while reading. Now to go mop up the screen…
Our society is probably one of the least violent on Earth, especially compared to times past. Fool.
I wonder if she ever pondered what happened to the societies that weren’t capable of violence or had the means to inflict it upon their enemies? Those would be the ones that never made it into the history books, they being all wiped out and such.
Funny, then, that the same people who abhor violence or even the potential thereof also want The State, with its monopoly on force, to enforce their wishes for a more just and peaceful society, which generally involves taking your property and your rights from you.
I’m thinking this argument of hers was not fully thought out.
– Max
Isn’t the plural of medium – media? Then again this is San Francisco, so he could be referring to fortune tellers.
- Kyon
I’m pretty sure they just recycle this letter to the editor with a few minor detail changes each year.
They all seem to be by teachers and their terrified charges.
It’s been a while since I read Time Machine, but didn’t the Morlocks eat the Eloi, making them somewhat useful to society? Not that I think we should go the Soylent route, but the compost/fertilizer market could be revolutionized…
The caption under the photo states “The Blue Angels perform in the sky above San Francisco during last year’s Fleet Week.” I know this is nitpicking, but that’s not the Blue Angels in the photo. I’m not sure what they are, but they’re certainly not fierce fighting and agile attacking FA-18s. Although I’m fairly confident that’s a lesbian seagull in the foreground.
A most excellent fisking. +1 Internets to you, Good Sir.
Knowing a number of educators in San Francisco, I can tell you this bozo does not speak for all teachers. And while it may be argued that San Francisco has more than its share of bozos, they do also exist in every city and occupations.
The comments to his opinion piece are more indicative of the responsible and more intelligent majority, especially the comments about US Armed Forces regarding the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Regardless, such buffoons really don’t bother me so much. They are inconsequential.
But what does bother me is the second part: ” San Francisco’s Kid Drain”, or more accurately the socio and economic reasons behind it. It is a hypoxic canary in the mineshaft.
BTW, San Francisco Blue’s shows are some of the best anywhere, given its bay and beautiful scenery.
I too know a fair number of teachers in and around San Francisco. I’ll agree that he doesn’t represent “all teachers” there. There are a few dozen who are to the right of him. Heck, I think even Sonoma State has one conservative professor.
Filt – it bothers me as they are teaching our kids, mine included. Gone are the days when they said question authority and think for yourself. Now the play out who is good, who is bad, and what is OK to think.
My son is in 5th grade, I’m already cleaning up that mess.
My most beautiful view of San Francisco was at sunset as the red sun back-lit the skyline… in my rear-view mirror.
Good lord, man! That view means you are going into Berkeley! How the heck is that better?
Well…OK, maybe Oakland. They have the Raiders.
“Just a minute Wilson. I intend to mold those men out there into an aggressive fighting force and I’m not going to get very far if you keep inviting them to “step this way” in that nancy voice.” _Cpt. George Mainwaring
Do NOT be drinking anything!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W0VW0RUCcc
The “Kid Drain” article ends:
Perhaps the people running the public schools should find out why people who can afford it send their kids to private schools and then try to emulate them?
Declining revenues will be due not only to lower enrollment but due to fewer people who will vote for school bonds, etc. The longer commute to class I can sympathize with to a point. But I guess the public school teachers should start specializing in teaching low income children. Or, they could get jobs in the private schools. The non-unionized private schools ….
ronf – “Perhaps the people running the public schools should find out why people who can afford it send their kids to private schools and then try to emulate them?”
Oh they know! The main reason the economic elite is San Francisco send their kids to private schools is because the would rather their kids not have to associate with lower class social or economic student strata, and others not of their ethnicity or religion.
My wife taught for many years in both public and private schools. Do you not think her students received the same superlative education at either? There was no difference.
Aside from the elitism of private schools, they do have one major advantage – class size! While public schools may have 30 –36 kinds in a class, a private school will likely have only 15 kids in a class. That is what money will buy. Nevertheless not all private schools have test scores higher than many public schools.
The main reason the economic elite is San Francisco send their kids to private schools is because the would rather their kids not have to associate with lower class social or economic student strata, and others not of their ethnicity or religion.
Oh, Christ on a unicycle! They send their kids to private schools because the SF schools are, for the most part, crappy. They have to teach watered down, relativist, revisionist crap at the lowest level in the class. Such policy put in place by that bigoted, hate filled wealthy liberal elite.
There it is right there. The current version of the blue angels site has video from inside the cockpits of the Boss, and the Solo’s. It’s fun to watch if anyone hasn’t been there in a while. http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/inside/
I’d love to see some HD video next time. I’ve seen the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds many times now. The Blue Angels have a much better show.
Ah,Lex, you weren’t by any chance annoyed by the prattle of that retard, were you?
The truly annoying fact is that idiotic POS is TEACHING CHILDREN. He is inculcating into them the mind set of being little sheep who will wander without understanding and certainly without protest into the re-education/extermination camps of the next totalitarian dictator.
And as the steel jaws snap shut on them, they may just have a momentary jolt of awareness to ask,”why me?”
“Unicorns and rainbows, chiefly. Which are being loudly violated!”
that sounds hawt.
To calm us down a bit, here is a view of Yosemite, from a webcam.
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff30/subdjoe/sentinelsunandsnow.jpg
http://www.tranquilityimages.com/cams.shtml
Curtis is right about BRAC booting not only the Navy, but the Army too out of the Bay Area. Many bases were closed. The loss of jobs and impact on the local economy was brutal.
Here is a picture of how it used to be, circa 1960: http://tinyurl.com/4xqhu73
Booted? More like DOD decided not to stay where they were not wanted.
BRAC made some questionable decisions after the first round. But pulling out of the Bay area was more defensible than most.
Kind of like all the hoo-rah over the gunnery range in Puerto Rico a decade or so ago. All kinds of protests about how the continued use of it was causing all sorts of harm. Government agreed to stop it. Then some Navy big shot thought it over and announced that since the only real reason the Navy kept a base there was because of the gunnery range, the base would be closed as a cost saving measure.
Oh! Can’t do that! Too much of the local economy depended on the Navy for revenue! How dare the Navy think about closing it!
I remember doing TDYs down there. Much better than doing TDY at Gitmo.
Great times at the O-club, which was up on a big, steep hill. Great weather. But the thing that killed me was the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the base closed and all of the people who lost their jobs because some whiners. The Navy said, tough titty, said the kitty. You said you wanted Vieques range gone. We made it go away. Now there’s no reason for Rosey Roads. So sorry.
To people like these, the military is some kind of jobs and disaster relief program, if that. One commenter said “we should spend the savings from cutting the defense budget on infastructure.” Well, this same person probably supports all sorts of environmental red tape and bureaucratic nonsense that makes it impossible to build a bridge or a tunnel or, heaven forbid, a dam, without all sorts of environmental impact studies, lawsuits, more lawsuits, smelly protests. They want the benefits a strong capitalist republic affords them, yet they don’t want to live in a strong capitalistic republic.
Give the man a Kewpie doll!
I think the defining characteristic of a liberal is a complete inability to think ahead. You see it everywhere from political positions to how they drive.
As a former CO of Rosey, I hated to see the place close but even in the late 80s when I was there, I knew that closing the Vieques live range would be the death knell for the base.
I’d have to agree with Lex’s assessment of the feeling that a Holocaust survivor (or liberator) might be grateful for the positive nature of the display. An assumption based on the good intent of those who’ve sworn to fight for and protect the Constitution. Last Sunday, I met a WWII veteran who freed the camps (after the flyover that we did at the Chiefs/Vikings game and I was in my flight suit still checking into my room,) he started tearing up as he approached and introduced himself and gave me an hug. I was surprised by the forthright nature of the moment. But it’s one that I’ll remember. As I started walking up stairs he stopped me and said, “Be strong, to protect the weak and destroy those who would hurt the innocent. Remember why we fought.” Semper Fi, Tom.
Eloi, won’t ever relate or get ‘it.’
Thanks for the Posts, love ‘em.
Say hi to McCammond for me.
He says Hi to Niemyer!!
The U.S. military was the major factor is rescue and recovery of Sodomy City after the earthquake in 1906.
I guess they have hated us ever since.
It may be that we no longer have the resources available for non-essential missions like that if they every need help again, which would serve them right. And, unlike most disasters, I would not give anything to the Red Cross to help them either.
Maybe the “occupiers” will do their thing there.
If Sailors in F/A-18s are not to be in the air over SF, how long until Morlocks in MiGs are? The teacher doth proest too much, methinks.
A long, long, time ago in a Galaxy far, far, away SF was a BIG pro-Navy town. Would be nice if we could find Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine and visit what once was…hell, it was HUGELY pro-military as late as 1966–the last time I was there–spent NY Eve there seeing in ’67. Memories only now..the City of the 50s TV cop series SF Streets is alas no more..
And a GREAT post, Lex–could really tell this one was from the heart–the slow burn induced heart-burn kind of heart..
So has anyone sent the eloi in question a sheeps bladder to help prevent earthquakes in that seat of the new learning?
I expect the enrollment of children to continue to drop. With 40% of single men in the city being homosexual, 40% of single women cannot expect to start a natural family. They will have to move out in search of a husband or accept being a single mother with all the stresses and dangers involved.
Demography has an iron grip, it is slow to squeeze but inevitable. Societies that don’t have children will fail or be replaced by immigrants that bring their own society with them.
Societies that don’t educate children to be adults will fail too. Thats where the Eloi come from.
In the article only one kid complains about the aircraft, the rest dropped everything to try and see, which would have been about the ratio when I was growing up.
The kids are all right, it’s the adults that are screwed up.
“We happened to be talking in class about our society’s epidemic of violence and its many mediums of proliferation”
Oh, I guess that’s what they are doing these days instead of learning to read, write, basic math, basic geography, and history.
Which is why, as a college graduate level TA working two history classes, I had freshmen who could barely read, couldn’t write, didn’t know any historical dates, and had one student who hilariously thought Africa was the largest continent despite the big map on the wall.
As the students settled back into their seats, one eighth-grade girl softly said, “I don’t get it. Why are they here?”
We are here to recruit you, dear child! We are low on eighth-graders and you are our last, best hope. . .
My son is in the 8th grade.
If the Blue Angels flew over his school, he would be the first to the window. I expect his comment would be something like, “That’s the sound of Freedom!”
I don’t expect he would have too many teachers in SF who would approve of the books he has read. His favorite book (so far) is With the Old Breed, and he is currently reading The Village and very much enjoying it.
And yes, he has seen the Blue Angels a number of times…he gets it.
Excellent post–another one that inspires me to prayer:
May Lex never have a reason to point that dagger at me. Amen.
This entry has guaranteed that I will keep reading this blog for at least another year. Mahalo!
I can’t help but wonder if that school teacher has ever read the short story “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas”. Either way, it sounds like he should leaf through it again.
“People’ (used loosely) such as the article’s author are the main reason why there are only two definitions for “Puckered Fog-Hole.”
One of them reads “See ‘San Francisco’.”
The part I don’t like about SF is that if you drop your wallet, you have to kick it all the way to San Jose.
I would like to suggest one reason that effect twit doesn’t like the Angels; they are unbeatable competition, at least when it comes to boys.
Think about it. On one hand we have a patchouli-munching emo-boy without a single clue of the real world, and on the other we have one of America’s finest machines capable of going 1,200 miles per hour while dealing out death & destruction.
For an eighth-grader that’s a no-brainer.
Ack; time to clean the glasses; that’s effete twit.
The Blue Angels fly over Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
An editor’s note: On Oct. 6, 2011, the Open Forum featured commentary by Rich Hill, a San Francisco public school teacher. This is a response.
Dear Mr. Hill,
I too have strong feelings about the Blue Angels. I am a career military man still serving and a former team member of the Blue Angels. I was on the runway in Blue Angel #6, advancing the throttles for takeoff, when we were told to abort our takeoff; it was 09:26 hours on Sept. 11, 2001.
Upon returning to our ready room, we immediately began to consider what we could offer to defend our nation and protect our citizens.One percent of our American citizens serve in the military. It is an honor to be one of them. Why do I serve? Because I believe all men and women are created equal and we should be allowed to live free. Like all service members, I am prepared to lay down my life, as many have, so we remain free. I do not begrudge your position and your beliefs on war. I embrace them because freedom of speech is but one part of our Constitution that I’ve taken an oath to protect and defend.
While serving with the Blue Angels, I was given the privilege of visiting Veteran’s Homes and Hospitals. My memories of those times far outweigh those of the flights. We spent time in the company of men and women who served and who shared experiences of service. Upon departing, each member of our team would leave those visits profusely thanking our veterans for their sacrifice. You wrote, “I think some veterans will do the wondering” regarding looking to the sky and seeing the Blue Angels as a symbol and an emblem of war. I respectfully disagree. I think they will look to the skies and wonder whose, son, daughter, husband, wife, father or mother is up there representing the sacrifice, service and professionalism of our volunteer citizen soldiers.
I hope when your eighth-grade student asked last year, “I don’t get it, why are they here?” I hope you responded something to the effect of, “those men and women represent the 2.8 million members of our armed forces who protect and defend the Constitution of our United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and they have pledged their allegiance to the same. They are here to remind us of the pride of our United States of America, they symbolically represent those who have served, those currently serving and those who will serve.” Your answer may have been different, and that’s OK too.
I regret I never had the opportunity to meet William Lowenberg, the Holocaust survivor you mention in your article. I am confident that, had I heard his personal testimony of the tragedies he endured, it would have re-affirmed my resolve to do my part to ensure it NEVER happens again. Not on my watch, Mr. Hill.
Per your suggestion, perhaps Fleet Week will be put on the ballot; that’s the kind of democracy our armed forces protect. If voted on, I hope Fleet Week remains because when I was on the Blue Angels, we always enjoyed the warm reception we received from the grateful citizens of the considerate city of San Francisco.
God bless America.
Scott Kartvedt is a proud American citizen and former Blue Angel. He lives in Niceville, Fla.