Autumn is moving in. The last tomato is in the can and cotton is being combed from the fields. There’s lots of dust and plenty of bugs swirling around. Our windshields need constant cleaning in order to have a clear view of what’s ahead of us. It’s like a breath of fresh air sighting through a clean glass as the tail comes up and the wings build lift. Of course, it doesn’t last long. There is always one big, fat, juicy bug that will home in on your newly sparkling glass and splatter himself right between the bridge of your nose and the light bar. It’s an aeronautical fact of life. One of those phenomenons of physics and nature man will never understand.
As the calendar flips over to November and flying slows down or comes to a stop, it is still important to keep our windshields clean. Maybe cleaner than ever before. Clean enough to give a fresh perspective, and a clear outlook. Good visibility is imperative; especially now.
November 2016 finds us at a crossroad. The air is full of debris, dust and smog. It’s difficult to see ahead. It’s even more difficult for those whose windshields are obscured. You can look left and right for a time, but you’ll have to make a decision sooner than later. There’s no runway to wait it out. Try as you might, even fake it if you want. Whether passenger, or pilot, we’re all flying through this together. You can’t climb over it and you can’t go under it. There are storms either way and the sun is setting. Some can choose easily. Rock the stick over, put in a little rudder and head out the way we feel to be the best. Have you ever stared down a squall line or a fog bank and wondered if you could punch right through it? Or, will it be an unending abyss? As a nation, we are in a very similar predicament. The choices that are made in November will be life or death decisions. The course we take will determine our ultimate destination.
I hesitate to interject a political narrative in this column and I might be wet starting my engine by doing so, but the stakes are higher than ever this time. We are literally at a go-no go decision time and might very likely find ourselves in the air with no altitude, no fuel, no airspeed and the only ideas coming our way will be from an ATC who couldn’t operate a wristwatch or wouldn’t give a broken loader hose gasket to save us if it meant an inconvenience to a political narrative or agenda.
The entire world is on the edge of their seats watching what us crazy Americans will do next. We’re the headliner act in a really bad air show. We’ve spun, rolled, looped and hammer headed, and not a single maneuver has been in coordinated flight. We have been more out of control than in control and the results are showing by the ragged fabric and cracked spars of our ship.
As time passes we have become more desperate to push the limits. We’ve exhausted the usual attempts at exceeding the limits of man and machine and have now pressed on to exceed the absolute limits of sanity. Our country is trying to be pilot and wing walker at the same time, while playing Russian roulette with a semi automatic pistol. The crowd looks on in morbid anticipation. Cheering when the wrong thing is done. Jeering when the right thing is done. Now we are in an inverted spin. Auguring downward, blindly stabbing the controls in feigned efforts of recovery. The show announcers gleefully describe our descent. Making it up as they go most of the time. They’ve crossed the line between fact and fiction so often the line is simply no longer visible or even considered to have ever existed. Smudged out by trampling feet running after ratings and emotional effect. It’s a dizzying ride.
The crowd is biting their nails. Salivicious grins curling their mouths as America plummets toward a dismal end. A smoking pile of wreckage. Who will we blame? The pilot, or the wing walker?.
As a man who loves his country more than his own life, it baffles me to see how readily, how eagerly our nation is being taken apart. Ripped to pieces and eaten by mad dogs. Mad for power, corrupted to the center of their souls. Cheerfully being fed by a subjugated populace who have no idea what they are doing. No idea that when they run out of things to feed their masters, they will, themselves be torn to shreds and devoured.
Yes, my friends. The course before us is likely to be the most important of our generation. We have to take the controls from whoever is piloting what is left that is flyable. It’s necessary to make sure the windshield is as clean as we can get it despite all the gunk trying to stick to it. Right now we have a prayer and a vote. It is without a doubt the time to use both in earnest. We will very shortly be left with only one of those things, albeit the most important of the two. They could soon attempt to deny us even that.
A man asked if he were to step in front of a moving train, would God save him? He could, but more than likely, He will allow him the opportunity to make his own choice and subsequently reap the consequences of that decision.
There’s no telling where we will be a month from now. Probably staring through the guts of a big, fat, juicy bug trying to keep the lights centered. Let’s hope the rest of the view is clear.
Fly well. Stay safe. Get out and vote!
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