Your Tax Dollars at Work

The Navy brought their flying recruiting show to Brunswick over the weekend. The show, at the Brunswick Naval Air Station, featured the Blue Angels and their F-18 fighter jets. I have to admit that I watched the show, despite the fact that I probably "should" have been protesting with my left-leaning brethren. Well, I watched the Blue Angels anyway, from my friend's boat in Harpswell Sound, pretty much at the end of the BNAS runway. The power and precision of these machines is quite impressive. (I'll also note here that, with the team practicing in Brunswick for three days beforehand, I had already seen a lot of the show anyway).

Of course, the power of earth-moving equipment is fun to watch, too. But when it's taking off the top of a mountain in search of coal it's not fulfilling, even if you can't take your eyes away. This air show, which attracted 200,000 to the base (I think that the figures are just for the base) and many more to surrounding areas, burned 1,300 gallons of fuel used by the F-18's alone (according to one of the linked stories) and countless others in transporting people to Brunswick. It's a colossal waste of resources. Likewise, the tax dollars needed to maintain these $30 million aircraft could be better spent in many many areas. The Blue Angels, after all, are all about entertainment and recruitment. These pilots are not engaged in combat training at this stage of their careers. The last Angels show scheduled for Brunswick was cancelled due to the 9/11 attacks. Hurricane Katrina was much more devastating than 9/11, and clearly underscored how poorly this country has been allocating resources in recent years. If anything, Hurricane Katrina should have provided impetus to cancel the show and scrap the program altogether.

Supporters of the air show talk about how it increases the patriotic feeling in this country, and how attendance showed support for the troops in Iraq. This is baloney. The Blue Angels have no relevance to the war in Iraq, unless it draws more people to the military so that they, too, can spread democracy in the desert (I heard a Navy recruiting ad on the radio this afternoon that elicited the power of the Blue Angels). The Blue Angels were around long before the start of the war in Iraq (and, indeed, the War on Terror), and they'll (unfortunately) be around long after. They serve nothing other than to spread propaganda about the military.

So, I'm sorry, but I went to see the Blue Angels. I also went to spend time with my friends and enjoy a boat ride off the coast of Maine. But I oohed and ahhed at all the right times, and was impressed with the machines and the daredevils who fly them. I also came away with an empty feeling because I don't buy into the goodwill mission that these pilots are supposedly spreading. The whole event was, ultimately, a big waste. At least I got to see where some of my tax dollars are going.