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So, are my concerns regarding a recent incident reasonable or unruly? Would such surviving, strong sentiments subside, eventually, all on their own? If not, should I attempt to subdue them via free expression? Perhaps my distilling everything down to a white screened, black font would prove cathartic? Well, here I am.
Let’s see what happens…
It all began this past Saturday, approximately an hour prior to nightfall. While gradually drifting off to the land of nod, the sound of an approaching jet, flying at a lower than normal altitude, abruptly sent me round tripping it back to reality.
However, I had no sooner opened my eyes than the decibels had already diminished, dramatically. Perhaps I had only dreamt this? Whatever the case, now fully awakened by this unconventional alarm clock, I opted to awaken my laptop, too (to apply polish to a rough draft).
Well, after approximately ten minutes had flown on by, the jet’s roar returned; thereby proving its first occurrence no dream. Seeing how, typically, there’s not a whole lot of air traffic over-hood, I immediately suspected that its pilot had opted to go the holding pattern route to confront something, shall we say, out of the blue?
This time around, I stepped out onto my front porch for an upward look-see; all to no avail. Seeing how the cloud deck was nearly “eclipsing” the sliver phased moon, I hadn’t actually expected to perceive much more than that aircraft’s, once again, fading decibels.
As it all unfolded, this plane, eventually, returned for a third and fourth flyover. And not once, during my two subsequent ventures outdoors, did I ever catch even one glimpse of it.
There are multifaceted reasons why this entire event kept my thoughts flying off to truly dark places.
- It had been the timing aspect, itself! After all, this past Saturday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11; when [1] Osama bin Laden’s homicidal, suicidal “flight crews” had commandeered four commercial airliners, [2] terrorized and brutalized passengers and the flight crews, [3] stomped bin Laden’s grotesque, gargantuan footprints all over NYC, DC and PA and [4] went on to forever turn upside-down our entire world. I could not help but wonder if some passenger(s) had opted for a 9/11 reboot?
- My mind kept on “screening” vivid recollections of my 2004 harrowing flight home; when a widespread, severe, early spring, thunderstorm’s 128kph / 80mph winds had necessitated the total shut down of our destination’s airport. The accompanying turbulence, above, wound up tossing our flight attendants about and, we wound up in a holding pattern that dragged on so long, that the pilot had to reconfigure a flight path that’d land us at an airport’s “gas station” several states away.
- We are talking about my brush with death, here. Had our captain, instead, risked hotdogging a landing under such wild and woolly weather conditions, the tragic end of our flight would’ve become the 11 o’clock newscasts’ lead story, nationwide; would’ve fueled the disaster film screenplay writers’ imaginations; kept their typing fingers flying across their keyboards. Had lightning strike(s) fried the plane’s electrical systems and/or struck the engines, we’d have all wound up no less dead than the 9/11 airborne victims.
- I also could not avoid factoring in the present day reportage re air rage; i.e., where we discover the mentally challenged Trumpers / domestic terrorists rearing their ugly heads; flying off the handle for absolutely no reason; getting handcuffed/duct taped to their seats. I wondered, anew, if such an uprising was going down?
I spent the rest of my Saturday evening working on that rough draft, but, inevitably, succumbed to fatigue long before the 11 o’clock news.
Upon my awakening Sunday morning, I immediately tuned my FM radio into NPR’s Weekend Edition, where, thankfully, there were no reports of any air-related incidents or accidents.
And while I could and did take solace in that, there could never be any feel good moment associated with the lessons that Tuesday, September 11, 2001 had so dramatically taught anyone in possession of a fully functioning brain connected to wide open ears.
While the governmental types can pat themselves on the back for toughening up airport / airplane security, they’ve yet to dig deep down to the root of what’s been fueling terrorism; be it organized or lone wolf; be it of foreign or domestic origin.
Post 9/11, our “leaders” have done little more than apply a band-aid (if even that) to the gaping, festering wound of poverty! It’s their abject failure to honest to God help the people overcome joblessness, homelessness and hopelessness. When folks, besieged by discontent and desperation, believe they’ve got nothing left to lose, that renders their minds totally susceptible to suggestion.
And God help us all were any of the impoverished to ever be within earshot of some disciple of Osama bin Laden or Donald J. Trump incarnate.
Well, folks, it’d appear that my distilling everything down to a white screened, black font did prove cathartic and much more, too, that is, if my anti-poverty message will ever be taken to heart. The betterment of our global society depends on such enlightenment.
Once the WordPress runway and www send my (fortunately non-subdued) sentiments aloft, let’s hope they’ll wind up in holding patterns above all nations, where the “sovereigns” are in desperate need of learning such a fundamental truth.
Let’s see what happens…
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Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!
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