It was a cold February morning in 1968 that I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. As an officer, I had to be the first one to jump out, ostensibly to show my men I was not afraid. Of course, that was not true. I was very afraid, but I was completely resolute to do my job -- no matter what!
Standing alone in the doorway, waiting to jump, I put my hands outside the door on the skin of the plane. (When I looked down and noticed the toes of my boots were sticking over the edge, I confess a certain passing queasiness.) The door was just behind the engine props, where it was very cold, very noisy, and very turbulent from the prop-blast.
It was too loud to hear anything, so the jump-master simply slapped my backside when it was time to jump. I fell for a few long seconds before feeling the sudden jerk of my parachute, which was a beautiful sight when I looked up. Looking down, the view was also beautiful. But, the big difference was the quiet. It doesn't take long for the airplane to be far enough away to be out of ear-shot. It was downright pleasant -- a beautiful view, quiet, and a new-found sense of accomplishment!
So, what could be wrong? Oh, yeah . . . the ground was coming up to me at 18 feet per second, which focuses the mind. After the initial rush of panic, the paratrooper will begin guiding his parachute to a safe landing spot, quickly turning the chute to face into the wind just before impact, arrange his body into a "parachute-landing-fall" or PLF position, and wait to react quickly at impact.
It will be a cold January morning in 2013 when the United States stupidly jumps over The Cliff. As the three sides (Republicans, Democrats, and Tea Party) step to the edge, none has the courage to go first, but all are resolute that they will pander to their political base -- no matter what!
At first, the fall will be almost pleasant, because nothing apparent is happening. All three sides will have a new-found sense of accomplishment! After all, they did stand on some principle important to their partisan base. At some point, they will look down and see reality approaching them rapidly. But, will they know what to do?
Paratroopers often joke that only an idiot would jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If that is the case, Congress certainly has a lot of paratroopers!
Over a month ago, I wrote about my surprise at how angry voters are about this self-inflicted wound and actually felt some slight sympathy for the poor, ignorant, elected-idiots. Hopefully, they spent a few days at home over the Holiday and heard from enough of us -- to realize wisdom does not lie in a political platform.
Of course, the nation will survive this. Even if we endure another recession, it won't be the last one. What may not survive is our pride or our sense of accomplishment. Our forefathers designed and built a wonderful system of governance, which worked for centuries . . . until we elected Puritans who by definition always know the correct way to do everything and cannot compromise on anything.
Standing alone in the doorway, waiting to jump, I put my hands outside the door on the skin of the plane. (When I looked down and noticed the toes of my boots were sticking over the edge, I confess a certain passing queasiness.) The door was just behind the engine props, where it was very cold, very noisy, and very turbulent from the prop-blast.
It was too loud to hear anything, so the jump-master simply slapped my backside when it was time to jump. I fell for a few long seconds before feeling the sudden jerk of my parachute, which was a beautiful sight when I looked up. Looking down, the view was also beautiful. But, the big difference was the quiet. It doesn't take long for the airplane to be far enough away to be out of ear-shot. It was downright pleasant -- a beautiful view, quiet, and a new-found sense of accomplishment!
So, what could be wrong? Oh, yeah . . . the ground was coming up to me at 18 feet per second, which focuses the mind. After the initial rush of panic, the paratrooper will begin guiding his parachute to a safe landing spot, quickly turning the chute to face into the wind just before impact, arrange his body into a "parachute-landing-fall" or PLF position, and wait to react quickly at impact.
It will be a cold January morning in 2013 when the United States stupidly jumps over The Cliff. As the three sides (Republicans, Democrats, and Tea Party) step to the edge, none has the courage to go first, but all are resolute that they will pander to their political base -- no matter what!
At first, the fall will be almost pleasant, because nothing apparent is happening. All three sides will have a new-found sense of accomplishment! After all, they did stand on some principle important to their partisan base. At some point, they will look down and see reality approaching them rapidly. But, will they know what to do?
Paratroopers often joke that only an idiot would jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If that is the case, Congress certainly has a lot of paratroopers!
Over a month ago, I wrote about my surprise at how angry voters are about this self-inflicted wound and actually felt some slight sympathy for the poor, ignorant, elected-idiots. Hopefully, they spent a few days at home over the Holiday and heard from enough of us -- to realize wisdom does not lie in a political platform.
Of course, the nation will survive this. Even if we endure another recession, it won't be the last one. What may not survive is our pride or our sense of accomplishment. Our forefathers designed and built a wonderful system of governance, which worked for centuries . . . until we elected Puritans who by definition always know the correct way to do everything and cannot compromise on anything.
