Jets Nov 8^th

The Blue Angels and their Cherry Festival performance is an interesting local issue. If you haven’t been reading the Record Eagle, the issue of dropping the Blue Angels jet performance from the Cherry Festival has been raised by the local Veterans for Peace (VP) members.

They provide a number of reasons for eliminating this particular air show; the most compelling are the loudness of the jets (over 120 decibels) which can really traumatize those who suffer from PTSD, and the fact that these are war planes and the Cherry Festival is not about national defense or about war. There are other reasons as well: the racket is hard on pets, wakes and startles sleeping babies as well as the elderly and, coupled with other festival unpleasantness, drives some inhabitants to use the time to visit out-of-town relatives.

On the positive side we have a substantial increase in the Cherry Festival attendance when they appear. Some estimates are that they increase attendance by about 100 thousand people. Many downtown businesses increase their gross, others do not, haircuts, trips to the home improvement store and other purchases can be put off. Who wants to miss the spectacle?

The Angels are cheap for the festival because their cost is subsidized by the taxpayer. The jets cost 25 thousand an hour to fly, so the usual formations of four jets cost the taxpayers 100 thousand dollars an hour. The total cost of their visit to the government is far greater than that because of the required support people but the Navy writes it all off as “publicity.” Citizens concerned about “fraud, waste and abuse” are quiet about this particular government expense.

The Record Eagle has had many postings about this issue and reading them is instructive… and discouraging. This morning’s paper has sixteen posts, six are from women. (At least they are if one can judge from first names.) Among the shortest, just six words, is from one of the women, “Do it. Get rid of them.” Another post, equally brief, this one from a male, “JET noise. The sound of FREEDOM!!!!” The score, which is hardly “scientific” is 12 to continue the Angels and three to stop them (one was indeterminate). All three of the stops came from women; all of the men want the show to go on. Many of the men were very clear conflating the Blue Angels with patriotic fervor even to the point of using many caps and exclamation points to emphasize their feelings. They truly believe that love for the Blue Angels and love of country are one and the same.

It is obvious that the Blue Angels will be performing whenever the festival can get them. Patriotism may have something to do with it but increased income for local businesses have considerably more to do with it. Then there is the appeal of the spectacle, of the unusual and the rarely seen. This has an enormous draw for many people whether it is a bear up a neighbor’s tree or Donald Trump posturing and telling outrageous lies.