A few nights ago, as Diane and I were watching coverage of the mysterious drones flying above military installations in New Jersey on television, we heard the sound of a motor coming from outside our living room windows. We walked to the windows and peered outside.
We saw the colorful lights of a flying … something … going past our apartment building and along the Fox River. It didn’t seem to be high enough or big enough (or loud enough) to be a helicopter, which we’ve seen before. It wasn’t flying fast enough to be a plane. Was it a drone?
The flying object followed the river north for a minute or two, its lights still visible from our vantage point, and then it turned around and started heading back toward us, this time along the far side of the river and behind the trees of Riverside Cemetery and Peabody Park. For a little while … a minute? … its flashing lights could be seen through the trees, but it appeared to be heading away from the river and eventually it disappeared.
So what did we see? Darned if I know.
Such sightings raise more questions than answers. Today I read a rather brilliant article about the drone sightings, written by Dr. Jane Orient, a rather distinguished medical doctor and expert on matters concerning civilian defense. Here’s the link:
https://www.ddponline.org/
She asks many intelligent and penetrating questions. Among her many sound insights are the following:
We need physical evidence, not just blurry photos, official opinions, and speculation—possibly an SUV-sized drone that crashed or that was followed until it landed. Meanwhile, we don’t know what is really happening—maybe more than one thing. But most important is not to panic. Panic is never helpful and usually a disaster.
As H.L. Mencken said, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
True, that. I wish more commentators on the mysterious drones were asking these questions and showing similar skepticism toward our government’s responses.
