Then came The Show.
The Blue Angels precision death aeronautics team "performed" over the city. in the early days, they flew between the high-rises. The entire city was agog.
I was not. The public spectacle worshipping sleek instruments of destruction was beyond the simple reach of my primitive brain.
Why they chose to use where i lived as mark points was beyond me, but there they were, 100 meters above my head, for four days straight.
I would ask my neighbors and friends why such a spectacle was allowed, and the answer was always conventional drivel.
Why don't we worship sustainable technology? Windmills aren't loud enough, nor destructive enough. Now i'm properly chastized.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
That was in 2000; the whole Fleet Week shebang was canceled after 9-11 and I don't know whether it has come back to the city since. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
We didn't have drunken sailors carousing in our neighborhood streets, warships anchored at the Bay front or F18's flying low over our roof...
As for me, I have flown glider planes: better flying on sun induced updraft flows above the Southern Alps than on military gasoline fumes. Thank you very much. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
