Here you go, folks –Â I flew a gyrocopter onto the Capitol Lawn to save our democracy.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
Here you go, folks –Â I flew a gyrocopter onto the Capitol Lawn to save our democracy.
YAY, DOUG!
And, it’s so beautifully written.
But, what else would we here at maha’s sites expect from you?
BTW – a hardcore conservative friend of mine likes what you did. So, it think you touched some nerves in all of the colors of the political spectrum.
Are you going to appear on any of the Sunday morning flatulation-fests?
Or, did Newt and/or Bobo beat you to it! 😉
Before I saw this, I was thinking about the previous post about “JEB?”. It is hard to explain how candidates can be so, clueless, crazy, confused and dishonest and still remain in the field. Then I thought about some of the things Doug had written.
It’s another symptom of the rank corruption. People running for office used to be obliged to act in the best interest of their constituents. Now they simply have to appeal to enough of the electorate to get into office so that the can act in the vest interest of their big donors. The rest is just a charade assisted by the public relations and publicity teams provided by the same monied interests. This was probably always true to a degree, but it seems more true now, and furthermore, the candidates don’t even have to hide it as they used to.
Doug, you may just become a notable and important historical figure, maybe even have a folk song or two written about you.
“Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, sing a song of Congressional corruption for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
Though I know that evenings empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty Congress is too dead for dreaming
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
May hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone
It’s just a escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your gyrocopter in time
It’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re of what the lobbyist’s are he’s chasing
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Gyrocapter man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory of fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey, Mr. Gyrocopter-man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you
How’s that?
You can’t beat Bob Dylan when it comes to great songs!!!
Thanks GULAG!
The comments in the WaPo are a reflection of how stupid people are locked in a partisan matrix. jeez flocking christopher! It’s not about progressive vs conservative! it’s about who holds the first mortgage on our government.
If I could direct the flow of comments, it would be to the subject on the table – SOLUTIONS TO THE FLOW OF MONEY THAT CORRUPTS OUR GOVERNMENT!
It’s not about me – I’m a mailman.
Kathleen Parker described what Doug did as a stunt. If Kathleen reads this blog, I want her to know it was not a stunt but an act of bravery. After all, he could have been killed. I am mighty glad he wasn’t. Doug is a hero and I will be praying (in my own fashion) for him as he appears for his arraignment. Who knows, perhaps people will pay attention and we can get some things changed in our government and restore the real meaning of democracy.
You go, Doug!!!
I’m in the WaPo and Maha’s spam filter. At the same TIME! LOL!
Yo, Doug, thank you for your effort on my behalf….I support ya fully, except, “don’t give up flying”…I find flying to be soothing and satisfying…I am spreading your story to folks who don’t read…I am grateful to have folks like you who are brave enough to back up their talk with actions…All I see of the gop are cowards, hiding behind their greed…
Doug’s editorial makes it clear that the acceptance of the way things are is not reasonable, and doing something “unreasonable” may be the only logical response. His flight was certainly more an act of free speech than a billionaire writing a check is.
Bill Bush – I have considered a ‘free speech’ defense – if a handful of plutocrats can pump billions into buying elections and call the money ‘free speech’ then why isn’t a minor incident of trespass on public land for the sole purpose of delivering a public message – free speech?
Doug Hughes is America’s Mathias Rust.
I was so pleased when I opened my WaPo at breakfast this morning and found Doug’s op-ed piece. Very nicely stated, Doug.
“The comments in the WaPo are a reflection of how stupid people are locked in a partisan matrix. jeez flocking christopher! It’s not about progressive vs conservative! it’s about who holds the first mortgage on our government.”
That sums it up beautifully.
As long as we are divided, we fight each other and we’re distracted from the real problem. What’s the use of yelling at each other if we’ve stopped listening?
At the same time, I think the best model for discourse that comes to mind is the famous, if possibly apocryphal, meeting between Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama. Sagan asked something like, “If we could prove that idea of reincarnation was completely false, would you stop believing in it?” The Dalai Lama replied, “Yes, of course. How would you go about proving that?”
I’ve been on both sides of this kind of exchange, of course, at a much more pedestrian level. I find, as often as not, that when I have to re-examine a “belief,” my reasons for holding that belief are not as solid as I had thought. Sometimes the best way to change someone’s mind is to listen truly and ask the questions that arise. It is also necessary to turn this process inward, despite the monkey chatter it produces.
There is so much noise and bluster that we can’t even punch our way out of the wet paper bag of misinformation. (metaphor for comic effect only!) But, the noise, bluster and hostility suggest an opposing state of emotionality, fear, insecurity, mistrust and confusion.
When a person is waving a gun around they’re afraid of something. Their biggest error may be that they have projected abstract fears as something concrete, something that could be stopped with a bullet. That would be in a simpler, less threatening world.
Sorry guys, I kind of got off my train of thought there for a while.
CUNDgulag, I guess Dylan’s into other things these days, but, if Pete Seeger were still with us …
“It is hard to explain how candidates can be so, clueless, crazy, confused and dishonest and still remain in the field.”
Regarding CU, that brought to mind the Upton Sinclair quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
And that is the problem with CU; its not about “free speech” as much as it is about corruption. We have the “Sheldon Adelson primary” and similar arrangements with the Kochs “auditioning” candidates where the hopefuls shamelessly twist themselves into pretzels to get the backing in millions of dollars in “donations” from these billionaires. Anyone who thinks that money comes without strings need look no further than the legislation that’s been coming out of congress since CU. And anyone naive enough to think that there aren’t any strings attached to the money these billionaires give ought to try to listen again to what people like Doug are saying.
Paid trolls in the comments thread are saying these who propose CU are against the First Amendment. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see, that if money is free speech, then allowing billionaires to hoard “speech” (read: access to congress) and crowd out the public that if anything, the First Amendment itself is being bought off as the exclusive “rights” of the wealthy.
How in the hell does that make any sense?
I wish I could write a “John Henry” song about Doug. The problem is that back in the folky days I wrote songs that were so awful that I still wake in a cold sweat from time to time haunted by the knowledge that there are still people walking the earth that might remember them.
Maybe an early Elvis Costello kind of approach?
Doug, that was magnificently well-written. The comments pretty perfectly separate the sheep from the goats– that is, those who actually read, understand, and think for themselves, versus those whose under-chins are permanently bruised by their ever-jerking knees. Ignorance is poisonous, but the best antidotes are courage, eloquence and facts. Thank you again, Doug!
Doug,
Excellent article, I actually got choked up reading that! Good luck with your court case, hopefully your judge will read that article, I would think he’d drop all the charges!
Just caught the last of comments by Doug on CNN at 3:15 PM today, *Thursday, May 21/2015. Clear, dignified, sincere, thoughtful statement, not long enough. HOpe he gets on some things like Melissa Harris Perry and Maddow and Chris Hayes.