April 22, 2015

What Will It Take?

Taxes were not the most interesting thing that happened April 15.  Doug Hughes landed a gyrocopter on the US Capitol lawn.

The Secret Service was befuddled.  The media came out in droves.  The clip was aired throughout the day.  But, in a day or two the novelty became old news.

Doug started planning this stunt 2 ½ years before.  Immediately, an anonymous “friend” reported him.  A Secret Service man came to his house with a local deputy, at 1 o'clock in the morning, to interrogate the potential terrorist.  Doug was quite happy to answer all questions.  Two days later, that agent showed up unannounced at the Post Office, where Doug worked, to ask his co-workers questions.

Then nothing.  He was not arrested.  He did not loose his government job.  Why?  Everyone believed he was too sane or too timid to carry out such a crazy stunt.  Even he wondered if he had the guts.  It meant loosing his freedom, his job, and his family.  It was possible that he might loose his life, just to make a point.

Because nothing happened, Doug continued to plan his mission.  He chose the gyrocopter as a metaphor.  They are nonthreatening and you can see right through them.  He wanted everyone to know he was not a terrorist.  He decked his gyrocopter out with cameras and sound, live fed to a website.  At the beginning of April, he wrote his local newspaper explaining his mission and emphasizing the nonviolent aspect of his protest.

Again, nothing.  It was just too crazy.

When he lifted off, a few people in his hometown watched.  They waited to see if he would chicken out and turn around.  The media finally called the Secret Service, who referred them to a public information officer, who put them on hold. 

Only pedestrians noticed when Doug flew into the “no fly zone.”  No homeland-protection jet swooped in.  No ground-to-air missiles marked him as a target.  He flew over the tourists and protesters and landed gently in the large grassy lawn.

What was his cause?  Nonpartisan campaign finance reform.  He was sick of the government being run by the highest bidder.  Doug simply wanted to be heard.  To his landing gear, he strapped two boxes filled with stamped letters addressed to every state representative.  These might actually get to the elected officials instead of sitting in a subordinates filing cabinet.

Most people agree change is needed.  There are several plans available.  Yet nothing happens.  Why?  Simple.  The people responsible to implement reform are those who benefit from the status quo.

Is he crazy?  Let me pose the question a little differently.  Is doing an extreme stunt, just to be heard, crazy?

For example, look at the biblical prophets.  Were their extreme stunts crazy?  Isaiah wandered around naked for three years.  Jeremiah wore a cattle yoke.  Hosea deliberately married a prostitute who did not want to be his wife.  Ezekiel ate a scroll, cut his hair with a sword, dug a hole through a wall, and staged mock battles against a clay city as he lay on the ground for over a year.  They said God instructed them to act out of the ordinary.  Isn’t that crazy? 

Yet, they all had a point, and those points were not crazy.  These men desperately tried to get the people’s attention.  They physically demonstrated the consequences of evil.  Even when civil law does not condemn, we should know when actions are not right, not ethical, and not good.  Without that knowledge, civilization self-destructs and hostile nations prevail.  Like Doug, the prophets had to take a stand.  They were willing to forfeit comfort, freedom, and often their lives to emphasize their point.  Yet today, even preachers debate their sanity. 


Before the flight of Doug Hughes disappears from our collective conscious, will anyone listen?  Will this crazy stunt change our complacency toward sin?

1 comment:

  1. I love your writing. Obviously. And I love having been with you as the thought process worked through to this great article. Keep them coming!

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