Editor,

We are a self-righteous society.

Think about it; someone wants to open a business, but it does not conform to our moral standards, we don’t like the politics of the owner, or it’s part of a big franchise business so we say “not in our community please.”

As a modern society we need landfills to dispose of our garbage, but when a location is being determined we say “not in my neighborhood.”

We need sewage treatment plants to process our waste products, and when locations are being selected we say “not in my backyard.”

As a society we want and need these things, but we don’t want them in locations that inconvenience or are a nuisance to us. We want everything, but with no strings attached, no personal cost or inconvenience.

Then there is the weird reasoning of some local folks that they can buy property knowing full well the property they are buying is in a known military air traffic area.

Then after they have been on the property for a while they use their right of freedom of speech to tell the federal government that the jet noise bothers them so the military can no longer use this air space because the “jets are too loud.”

You know, the noise those jets make is a testament to the wonderful freedoms we have in this great country — freedoms of speech and press to be specific in this case, protected and ensured by that “disrupting noise.”

Can you imagine what would happen or what the response would be if a citizen in Communist China sent a letter to the editor saying the “military flights are bothering them?”

First of all, the letter would never make it into the paper, and even if it did, the party would more than likely never get a chance to write a second letter. Imprisonment or death comes to mind for a Chinese citizen who speaks their mind too much.

Personally, I think the Navy should resurrect an old friend, the billboard. Who remembers the huge sign that used to be at the intersection of Ault Field Road and State Highway 20?

It had some very nice artwork and the sentence “Please pardon our noise, it’s the sound of freedom.”

They should redesign this sign, make it even bigger and put it up on their property at the road going into Outlying Field. If you don’t like this sound of freedom, you are free to leave and go back to whatever noisy city you came from.

Marc A. deLeuze
Oak Harbor