Is 'Gyrocopter Man' a quasi-terrorist or an American hero?
What Florida's Doug Hughes did was dangerous -- but I'm glad he's alive, and happy to share his message.
There's only one thing that's clear today about Doug Hughes, the 61-year-old mail carrier who flew a gyrocopter onto the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in a political stunt yesterday: He's lucky to be alive. When Hughes breached the no-fly zone around the key government buildings in Washington, he was met by agents with their assault weapons drawn, and some officials wondered why he wasn't brought down with lethal force.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who never met a war he didn't want to start or a terrorism suspect he didn't want to detain or execute without a trial, said this: "He should have been subject to being shot out of the sky. I don't know why he wasn't, but our nation is under siege. Radical Islam is a threat to our home land. There are probably radical Islamic cells in our backyard already."
Yo...to paraphrase another famous aviation incident, the Hindenburg crash, where is the humanity? What Hughes did was certainly foolhardy on some levels -- he was fully aware that he was potentially committing suicide-by-National-Mall-cop, and others could have been hurt in the crossfire. Personally, I'm happy that Hughes is alive, happy his mission ended without violence. Graham's comments suggest the greatest threat to America remains his own rich inner fantasy life of Muslims under every bed.
Hughes reminds me not of a Muslim terrorist but of another famous tortured soul and conscious objector to America on the wrong track: Norman Morrison, the Quaker who fatally lit himself on fire in front of the Pentagon in 1965. As news accounts of Hughes' caper made clear, his mission blended his grief over a personal tragedy -- his son's suicide -- with a life of concern over the corrupting influence of big money in politics. Simply put, he thought his cause was much bigger than the risk to his own life.
It may be wrong on some level -- and I'm sure I'll hear about it from y'all -- but whatever my head says about the actions of the man in the gyrocopter, my gut wants me to help him spread the message he was trying to deliver to Congress. The letter he was carrying said: "As a member of Congress, you have three options. 1. You may pretend corruption does not exist. 2. You may pretend to oppose corruption while you sabotage reform. 3. You may actively participate in real reform."
America has seen 40 years of Big Money strangling the national body politic like a killer strain of kudzu. Congress, aided greatly by the Supreme Court, has handed billionaires the ability to buy elections, court decisions, and even our public officials themselves. Average citizens have had no say in that process and -- as a result -- have even less say in our government today. Compared to the theft of our democracy, flying a gyrocopter onto the Capitol lawn barely rates as a misdemeanor.
I wish Sen. Graham could stop his terrorist hallucinations long enough to answer Doug Hughes' question:
Which is it, senator? 1, 2, or 3?