Wild place noises
I have no doubt that Navy FA-18 Growlers are important to our national security, nor that there are strategic reasons for the Navy’s desire to have them remain where they are.
I do doubt that there is no other reasonable way to protect our national security than to destroy the “peace,” the quiet — intrinsic to the beauty — of what is left of our wild places.
This “peace” is not the abstract and never attainable “world peace” that is bandied about by politicians, but actual “peace.”
Is such “peace” not the “peace” we all seek, we all need — the “peace” our warriors and their families have died and sacrificed for?
Is such “peace” and beauty not a vital part of what makes this “America the beautiful?”
It is one thing to live in a city and hear the jets flying overheard amid the competing sounds of our civilization — or to see and hear the Navy’s Blue Angels demonstration team scorching the blue sky during SeaFair in Seattle.
It’s different to hear Navy Growlers destroy the silence of land set aside for the quality of that silence.
Our beautiful land is a shared gift to be passed on to our children and grandchildren.
The Navy should heed John Muir: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in. Where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”
Comments to the Navy may be submitted at www.nwtteis.com/ by Wednesday.
Alfred Kitching,
Port Angeles