The World and Other Thoughts

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Flying over the western United States, between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, makes me feel as if I was flying over the surface of Mars. I can't believe how sere and barren it looks from 30,000 feet.

The mountains look like bones protruding from a withered husk. Here and there you can see what have to be water courses, whether ancient or recent you can't tell.

There are few roads out there as there appear to be few settlements. Every now and then there will be a town, it stands out as there are green fields (often in the shape of a circle) no doubt irrigated by water pumped up from far below the surface.

It's an alien world out there, from the air at least.

The Sierra Nevada are still snow covered, as you lift off from Fresno (where I saw the Air National Guard's F-15 fighters under their overhead shelters near the end of runway 29R) you are over green fields. Soon you pass the foothills and then you're over the Sierra Nevada. Pretty rough country, but magnificent.

I've traveled all over the world, seen many a magnificent sight, from the Rockies to the Alps. Flown over both the Atlantic and the Pacific (truly miles and miles of nothing, though I did see the wake of a ship far below while flying to Japan once upon a time) and there are a lot of sights out there to marvel the eye. Some made by man, most of the better ones made by God.

The Mississippi Valley is very interesting, the many twists and turns of that river are amazing from the air. It marks the boundary between the very green eastern U.S. and the rather pale and stark (from the air) Great Plains. It's green, but paler than what is east of the river.

Once across the Rockies (I've flown over those mountains at twilight during the winter, saw a lone dwelling with a single light showing, surrounded by miles and miles of snow, pretty impressive really, in a haunting sort of way) you're in the desert. Not many towns, not many people, there is life down there, but you have to be on the ground to see it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the good old U.S. of A. is a pretty magnificent patch of ground. It annoys me that there are those who want to destroy it, unwittingly or intentionally, on both sides of the political spectrum. Why is it that politics attracts so many assholes?

Indeed, why can't we all just get along? I tire of Facebook, too many idiots pontificating on things they're not qualified to pontificate about. I keep a low profile, I have friends, good ones, across the political spectrum, not on the boundaries mind you, closer to the middle, but still of differing opinions.

It's a beautiful world, let's try not to eff it up.

Sarge, out.