Silence … Golden or Not
Back in the day … the Navy base on Whidbey created a sign on the highway that stated PARDON OUR NOISE — IT’S THE SOUND OF FREEDOM. Kind of an apology for those Growler jets doing touch and go’s off at landing fields up and down the island. Now the sign reads THE SOUND OF FREEDOM. Forget the pardon part. You get the picture. Apologies are for weaklings.
On our weak sister island we get a little of that jet spillover, particularly up north. No problem, just crank up the TV a decibel or thirty, close the windows, try not to think of where the next aerial bombardment might be. Syria, Libya, China South Seas, Illinois. Hey, it’s the sound of freedom, okay? You got a problem with that???
Freedom means a lot of things to a lot of people. I guess if the U.S. Navy wants to keep a jet base on a now populated piece of prime real estate, well, good luck moving it to the Mojave. You might as well vote for slavery….. Me, I like peace and quiet, even if the two seem contradictory these days. And now Amazon wants to send drones to deliver their packages. That jet noise is going to seem like the quiet good old days soon. PARDON OUR DRONE — IT’S THE SOUND OF PROFITS.
Neighborhoods like the one across the street from me will sound like a hornets’ nest clobbered by a brick. You order that bigscreen 72 inch TV bad boy, you better build a landing pad on the roof for that delivery drone the size of Chinook copter to land without chopping the head off your Prius. Actually, I don’t expect Amazon to apologize any more than the Navy base. It’s a noisier world with hardly a nook to escape it, TV’s in the gas station pumps, muzak piped in 24/7, Fox News yammering and MSNBC trying to keep up, the whole world wired and amped.
And of course now the airlines are considering allowing cellphone usage in flight. So much for the Friendly Skies. PARDON MY STUPID PHONE CALL — IT’S THE SOUND OF BOREDOM. But hey, no need to apologize to your seatmates. Not anymore.
Hits: 34