Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Reading Col. James Haun's memoir Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee the other day, I came across this story from 1936:
"Hook wanted to fly and I took him on. I had him in the back seat of a Cub for his first lesson. We were cruising around south of the airport when there was a shocking loud report in back of me... Hook had his false upper teeth sticking out, his cap on backwards, and was shooting at a buzzard with his .45.
"I was suitably impressed and judging him to be the sporting type, pulled up and over in a loop, followed by a three turn spin. We became great buddies."
I'm a private pilot. My first, instant reaction on reading this was, "If that happened in a plane I was flying, I'd land ASAP and boot him out of the plane." My second thought was, "Wait a minute. What's wrong with that?"
These young men were flying a small plane in a rural area--there was no one to get hurt by the bullets (except maybe the buzzard). Yet my first reaction was something like, Hey, that's not allowed.
I was reminded of a story a neighbor told me once, from the same era. Someone had been seen skulking around backyards at night. One early morning, her Dad saw him and fired a shotgun from the bedroom window, and the guy ran off, never to be seen again.
Nowadays, if you did that, the neighbors would call the cops. On you.
It's not just guns. How many of you have wanted to build an addition onto your own house? How much paperwork and inspection does it take?
I've been a conservative most of my adult life. I cherish freedom. Yet the freedom our forefathers enjoyed, even three generations ago, is almost unimaginable to me, because I've got a little censor in my head that says, That's Not Allowed. Where did it come from? Our schools? Our media? I'm not sure. But I know I'm not the only one. Just today Ace of Spades wrote a post about the same idea.
How many of us have--slowly, imperceptibly--accepted this conceptual straitjacket? How long until freedom suffocates completely as it tightens? How can we fight back?
- Comment (35)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (5)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Oct '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Can't relate. 69 years ago, when I was born, we were allowed.
Add on to your own house? Did that 15 years ago. Pulled no permits whatsoever. Zoning goon showed up on my doorstep when I was out of town and tried intimidating my wife. When I got back I simply called him at his office, informed him that I was quite aware that he had no power over us except place a lien on our property if we ever tried to sell it, and that I didn't give a damn. Oh, and let him know that Mr. Shotgun was my friend.
Not allowed really means that there is a cost and you aren't willing to risk it. If it is moral and causes no harm, then it is allowed. Unless you value other costs higher than your liberty.
Mar '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
You strike rather close to home with this. I am barely beginning on my Private Pilot's license, the ground training is done but I have a distance to go on my hours, and I've had similar thoughts.
One 'Nam vet, a former Air Force pilot I work with, once commented to me that he worried his generation might be the last in the nation to actually experience freedom. I was not quite sure what to make of this at the time but the meaning has gradually revealed itself.
You cannot learn how circumscribed our freedom has become until you actually test your limits, try something beyond a day to day routine. If all you do is work in some office and punch in and punch out, 9-5 as it were, you will never see it; yet do something new and it will leap out at you. Purchase your first firearm, attempt to start a business, attempt to build an addition to your home or even... decide you wish to fly. Where before the hand of government was invisible now it is everywhere, unavoidable.
I understand my colleague all too well now, I worry he may be right.
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 4:22amSep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Roberto, I'm glad you're training for the Private Pilot Certificate. Flying for recreation--just for the joy of it--is one of our great freedoms. People in England have told me how difficult it is to be a private pilot there--so much government restriction. And on the continent it's worse.
Recently the Dept of Homeland Security tried to restrict private pilots--in the name of security, of course. The attempt was defeated, but I'm sure they'll try again. There's nothing they hate more than the fact that we're not under their control.
Sep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Raycon--I'm glad you had no trouble with the local government busybodies. I've never yet been a homeowner, but I've heard stories.
Then again, I grew up on the East Coast, where things are farther gone than other parts of the country.
Dec '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
You guys definitely would have liked the good old days. I learned to fly pre-TCA. Back then controlled airspace was minimal and mostly consisted of a 5 mile radius around airports (not counting high altitudes) with an active control tower. If you flew within 5 miles you had to contact the control tower and tell them where you were and get permission to either land or fly in their control area.
Back then there was still a wild west aspect to a lot of general aviation. There was an airport in the Cleveland area that we occasionally flew into. It had what looked like an old military hangar with high doors on 2 sides at about a 45 degree angle to one end of the runway. The first time we landed and went into the FBO, there was a big sign on the wall that said "DON'T FLY THROUGH THE HANGAR" with some small print about new construction. Some of the locals thought it was fun to fly through the hangar. Those were the days.
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 5:52amJul '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Move to the wild west. Dogsbody, here's a tale for you. When I opened up my own office 15 yrs ago one of my first patients was one of the few remaining flying tigers. He had dementia and a buxom assistant in a nurses outfit he adored. What he lacked in short term memory he had in long term and I spent hours talking with him about his time fighting the Japanese. He mostly discussed horrible weather as his biggest fear flying over the hump.
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
My parents down in Santa Cruz county deal with the "that's not allowed" red tape all the time. Growing up with that is one of the things that gave me a very poor impression of government and bureaucracy.
A redwood tree fell down recently on my parents' property. They need to acquire a permit (forking over several hundred dollars to the county govt) to remove it. If they tried to remove it without a permit, one of their busybody neighbors would surely report it, and then they'd not only have to pay the permit, but a hefty fine on top of that for not having a permit in the first place. So they've left the giant tree where it fell.
And this is but one of dozens of examples of my family's experience. Your description of this being a "slow suffocation" really is apt.
Dec '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
When you get in your car, make sure you buckle your seat belt. And if you have a young un - in some places that means under 10 years old - better strap them into the car seat.
Feb '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
About 10 years ago, there was a very anti-general-aviation article in Washington Monthly (once a somewhat interesting publication but now just another leftist rag.) The author expressed great dismay that in some places in the US it is possible for someone to get into an airplane and fly it without "adult supervision", by which he clearly meant talking to a controller.
Aviation is in reality a very heavily regulated activity, of course; even if you don't talk to a controller on a particular flight there are plenty of other regulations that do apply. But what struck me is that many controllers are themselves also private pilots...so in the view of this author, if someone is sitting in a control tower or a radar room in his incarnation as a government employee he is an "adult," but if that very same individual is flying his own airplane, he loses the adult status.
Jul '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
And You better have the appropriate approved lunch packed for Yer young un.
Sep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
I would have loved to have seen that sign. And the locals flying through the hangar, too.
General aviation is still the freest part of American life that I can think of. You can still takeoff in VFR and fly almost anywhere your airplane and fuel load will take you. The small airports in Michigan (where I live) and elsewhere are a national treasure.
Edited on February 18, 2012 at 12:28amSep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
That's the liberal mindset in a nutshell. If there's no government supervision, it's dangerous and cannot be allowed.
Thank goodness we pilots can still fly VFR without needing Mama Government to hold our hand. As it happens, I often request VFR flight following but it's so nice to know I'm not required to.
Sep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Indeed, Diane--what shocked me was realizing how much of this red tape had become almost a part of my conscience. If it can happen to me (and Ace) how many others are like this?
Sep '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
I love these guys--all of them. From the Flying Tigers to Patton's 3rd Army, to the guy shooting buzzards from a Piper Cub--they're the ones who defeated the great tyrannies of the 20th century.
Sep '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
Forgive me for going all "social con" on you guys--but firing a .45 from an airplane? Zowie! What fun! What frivolity! What an expression of the zeitgeist of the country before the Nanny State was founded!
Except, of course, those .45 rounds eventually landed someplace. And it wouldn't have been fun, frivolous, or an expression of personal liberty if somebody was hit.
We're supposed to believe that personal liberty is one side of the coin--and that personal responsibility is the other. Firing off firearms at altitude without having a clear understanding of where those rounds are going to land isn't freedom--it's the very height of irresponsibility.
May '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
"How long until freedom suffocates completely as it tightens? How can we fight back?"
I fear it won't be long until all our freedoms have disappeared, especially if Obama gets re-elected (and it looks more and more every day like the fix is in). We will have done it to ourselves in a thousand ways; sending the young off to be indoctrinated by totalitarian leftists at our universities who credential them in the dark arts of central planning; then we employ them to rule over us in our municipalities and schools. We've decided that we're better off turning our decision-making powers to technocratic experts, not realizing that they have no idea what's best for us. On and on, we've forfeited liberty for a phantom safety and security that doesn't exist, and by now it will be next to impossible to ever again know, as Ronald Reagan said, the freedoms our founders intended for us.
Fighting back would be a lonely and costly quest. I'm afraid most of the country has lost its zest for freedom, so sold are they on government as Big Daddy.
Edited on February 18, 2012 at 2:02amSep '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
dogsbody:
How many of you have wanted to build an addition onto your own house? How much paperwork and inspection does it take?
I built my entire house. (I contracted for the foundation, and some of the framing work.) I paid $20 for a driveway permit from PennDOT. Life was good.
The township changed their whole view of zoning, though, when a new resident launched a home-based business on his quarter-acre lot. He told the township zoning officer it was going to be a small meat market. It turned out to be the largest hallal slaughterhouse in the mid-Atlantic states--with hundreds of goats being slaughtered every day. So the rules changed.
It can be easy to rail against the insidious creep of government intervention--but there aren't a lot of circumstances where secret cabals of cloaked conspirators plot to deprive the citizenry of liberty. Rather, the decay of the concept of personal responsibility in the country has created enough anecdotes that liberals decide that Somebody Must Put a Stop to This! And another ordinance is passed, another office created, another program launched.
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
You just reminded me: Years ago I had the privilege of sitting in the home of Col. Dean Davenport, who co-piloted the B-25 "The Ruptured Duck," on Gen Doolittle's raid over Tokyo. This was in 1990, and the colonel couldn't rightly remember what he had had for breakfast, but when he began talking about the raid? The years fell away and he remembered every detail vividly. What an incredible story, and what an incredible individual. He passed away in 2000.
Mar '11
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
An mean .45 round masses approximately 12g, using basic formula the terminal velocity can be calculated
and the potential danger evaluated from there, or we can just reference Myth Busters as a handy guide. So what are our nice and researched results? Inconclusive, fantastic how helpful. Is someone firing bullets into the air potentially dangerous? Of course it is. Yet you are infinitely more likely to be killed by someone updating their Facebook page in traffic while you drive to work.
This is what statist philosophies do, this is exactly what dogsbody is waxing on. Life is dangerous, you can slip in your bathtub on a bar of soap tomorrow and die right then or you can live to a ripe old age smoking and die in bed. The world is dangerous, not all dangers are equal. Use some judgement, do not blind yourself that the risks of living can be done away with by words written on paper.
Edited on February 18, 2012 at 4:19amJul '10
Re: Freedom's Slow Suffocation
raycon: Can't relate. 69 years ago, when I was born, we were allowed.
Add on to your own house? Did that 15 years ago. Pulled no permits whatsoever.
About 6 years ago, my next door neighbors, who had just retired, purchased an RV and planned to take many long touring trips throughout the US, including Alaska. Wanting to retain a home base, they decided to put their house up for rent and build an apartment over their unattached garage. Gary was going to do most of the work himself. Plans in hand he went to the city offices to talk permits. When he found out that before one nail could be hammered it was going to cost him $27,000 with no guarantee of approval, he said to heck with it and sold the house.