Perhaps I'm a little insensitive or something. But I've been partly amused and partly annoyed with all of the anger over the Air Force One flyover in New York. Obama was not aboard, but the White House Military Office evidently wanted to update some of their photos of the plane that serves as Air Force One when the president is aboard by flying it around the Statue of Liberty. They had a later mission scheduled for several Washington D.C. landmarks, but that has since been canceled.
I'm sure you've seen the footage by now, but this flyover caused a semi-panic in a city still jittery after 9/11, with people pouring out of buildings screaming in terror. Obama is "furious," and the usual suspects are all enraged and calling for the head of Louis Caldera, the poor sap in charge of the WHMO who made the admittedly ill-advised decision. I was reading a story on CNN.com that quoted some New York therapist named Linda Garcia-Rose saying that all of her 9/11 patients have high anxiety now, and she is "considering filing a class action lawsuit" against the government. Someone needs to teach Garcia-Rose about governmental immunity. And frivolous lawsuits. I mean, come on. People are not entitled to reparations every time they get upset.
Perhaps that was not the wisest of moves, but you know, there are very good reasons that it is not our policy to publicize the whereabouts of Air Force One ahead of time. And I, for one, am sick of that photo of Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore. It is high time for new pics. The Statue of Liberty would have been a nice one. Maybe Bloomberg could have been alerted, but other state and federal officials were informed of the flight, including officials with the NYPD.
The reaction to this situation seems way out of proportion, at most it was a bad judgment call. This, and the swine flu silliness (not a single death in the U.S. as of yet)...we are becoming a country of weenies.
7 comments:
Too late, we have one death from swine flu.
Tanking your theme a little further (farther? . . .whatever) . .we (or at least our media) have become a nation of moral indignation . . .ists. Between, "fat cat bonuses," airplanes in times square, corporate bailouts, they distract from the real problems in our country. I blame Obama.
I heard Nixon tried to have Air Force One filmed strafing Hippies at Woodstock, but his handlers talked him out of it, citing the cost of installing machine guns into the wings.
Pocky,
I'm not sure the moralist outrage is all that inappropriate. The injustices of "fatcats" and corporate bailouts is a real thing, and, though I admit I understand these things not very well, it seems pretty clear that there is a lot of justified resentment. I believe rather that the resentment is usually misplaced as in "Nobody should make that much money while I'm working on an assembly line and can't get health insurance. They are FATCATS!!! It's not like they are sports stars or anything. 'Cause those guys are awesome!"
I will agree that the swine flu is overblown at the moment, primarily because nobody wants to be called slow to respond or underestimating the problem until it's too late. A little paranoia left over from Katrina. Some really smart people with PhDs predicted that bird flu was going to kill thousands and we'd all be fighting mohawk-sporting Australian psychopaths with crossbows and boomerangs over the last tanker truck of fuel trying to get to the coast, but that never happened to my knowledge
Still, I wouldn't scoff at it. Especially if you live in San Antonio province of Mexico. When you see the waiter at Alamo cafe hacking and coughing on your sweet sweet churro as he brings it to your table you're going to feel it. The uneasiness will creep into your mind... Suddenly that churro isn't so sweet is it Dez? It will turn to ashes in your mouth. Sweat springs on your brow and the back of your neck will go hot and prickly. Was that a tickle in your throat? Go ahead and cough. holding it in won't help. Maybe it's just allergies...
BTW, a girl at Episcopal was just diagnosed with swine flu. Maybe the Jews were on to something with the no pig thing.
Johannes--loved the Alamo Cafe bit. So true.
Let's not blame the pigs, Pocky. I heard the swine flu originated from people having sex with pigs and then bringing it to the bath houses in San Francisco...oh wait. Never mind.
Ray, you're an ass. I love you. Have always loved you. But you're an ass. September 11th was a really big deal. And for us, who live in New York and were here on that day -- an airplane buzzing buildings in the financial district is a legitimate cause for alarm. The fact that it was avoidable and sanctioned by our government was a huge fuck up.
Every single time there's an incident involving an airliner doing anything in New York the city takes a deep breath and hopes "not again".
I'm not advocating anyone sue the government, and agree with some of the points here, but your subject heading "too much outrage" filled me with outrage -- an exactly appropriate amount of outrage.
Ray's right. You New Yorkers are pussies.
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