Even the names are totally awesome. Every time I read a complaint my head shakes and I think, “Really?” I must let those serving know that I am grateful – that not all of us are complaining.

I’m having a hard time feeling sorry for those who are under the noise of the planes.  They moved there knowing there was a military base. Their choice. Now they are trying to force the planes elsewhere? We all should be grateful for this base. What are they supposed to do?  Move every base where people decide to build under their flight paths?  How…silly.

It seems we Americans have become so spoiled with freedom that we are numb to what much of the world lives with, and the freedom that this very military base helps provide us. Every time that sound vibrates through my whole body and shakes the ground under me, I want to stand up and shout, “Thank you!!  I am so glad for you!!”

Think of those flying the planes, maintaining them – of their purpose – of how they feel when their entire life is thankless, griped about, and fought against by the very people protected by them. It seems some want the freedom without the sacrifice.

Shame on us.

Is it perfect?  Of course not. Is it sometimes corrupt? Probably. So should we ship the navy off to the middle of a desert? Again…silly.  (A desert wouldn’t be affected?)  Over half of our borders are on oceans. There is a price for freedom for us all. If those in power decide to do more of its training inland, so be it. But I think they are perfectly capable of deciding.  We don’t know the half of what those in office do, whether that’s good or not.

Why not practice some gratefulness and focus on the positive. If we don’t want to hear the noise, we don’t have to move to those affected areas of Whidbey or Lopez Islands.  After all, this is a military base. Lets not strip it of its effectiveness.

Holli Kongorski

Lopez