The A's are in the playoffs -- full counts are scary enough. We don't need jets, too.
Dear Mayor Brown,
During our family dinner this evening (10/1/03 at about 7:10 pm) our house began shaking. A second later, we heard a tremendous roar as military fighter jet aircraft flew over our neighborhood. Our children began to cry as we ran out into the street. We thought we were under attack. When we got to the street, we saw that all of our neighbors had also run into the street as they were also scared and confused. When we began talking a neighbor said that the jets were part of the entertainment for a professional baseball game.
My family and neighbors are really angry with you for allowing military jets to fly so close to us and scare the daylights out of our children (and us)! We are shocked and amazed that in a post 9/11 era you could be so clueless and insensitive.
Here are your instructions, mister mayor: 1) issue a written apology within 48 hours, to us Oakland hills residents 2) Fire the bureaucrat who authorized the over flight, within 48 hours, 3) stop wasting our tax dollars! In case you did not know, it costs over $5,000 per hour to fly a single military jet fighter, 4) charge the baseball team in question the entire cost of the flights and the hundreds of 911 calls received as a result of this bad idea.
If this ever happens again on your watch, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a recall petition. Dont underestimate the amount of widespread fear and anger this incident has caused.
Sincerely,
M. S. Fisher (And, from the emails, many, many others)
Oh my goodness!!! You have got to be kidding me? First, celebrate the fact that the Athletics bring in more revenue to your city then you or I will ever make (just by being in this years playoffs). Be sure that your city government, the Oakland Athletics, and the Air National Guard had proper authorization from the FAA and broke no laws. Also you can bet that Major League Baseball and the Athletics more than fairly compensated the Government for the fly over. "We don't need jets, too." Yes we do. Recruiting, Motivation, Security and Freedom. With out them none of this would exist. All of this over 5 seconds? 5 seconds? Scared? No. Excited, You bet! Kids, educate em, encourage em and comfort em. But don’t let them be scared.
By the way, your instructions to the mayor, absolutely hilarious. Get real!!!
Hays
That's really unfortunate. I'm convinced that some people really just want to find something to be unhappy about.
Posted by: Zennie on October 6, 2003 11:58 AMI think Ms. Fisher and others by email have a valid complaint. I was standing outside the Coliseum for the fly by and it was LAME! Seriously, the planes came so close I nearly had a heart attack, thinking they would crash into the stadium. The boom was painfully loud. I did not hear one single person say, "Wow, that was so cool." My group talked about how stupid it was.
It was unpleasant, dangerous, expensive, and for what? To scare those Red Sox? Whoever arranged for this special treat must be a moron like the guys who throw cherry bombs in the stands. I'd be surprised to hear anyone apologize for this, but really, I think it was a very bad idea.
Posted by: S. Chun on October 6, 2003 01:24 PM I LOVED the fly by,,I thought it was really cool and so did most of my East Oakland neighbors that I talked too. Of course there is always going to be some anti-military or anti-anything diff from the norm that gets bent out of shape over something like this,,but hey,,it takes all kinds!
Go Warriors!
Look, what M. and his family and neighbors did was
terrific. A lot of people were scared by the noise,
and when we are scared we get angry. He, and those
like him, took action.
Result? A win-win. Neighbors have received notification of the next noisy flyovers, the Fleet Week celebrations continue.
I say good for M., and hats off to the Oaklanders Assistance Center and Zachary Twist for getting the new information out to people.
A giant raspberry to Mayor Jerry Brown for being his usual, graceless self.
Posted by: Jeannette on October 9, 2003 05:50 PMHey Mr. M.,
Give us a break! The noise from ONE plane? You Hill people crack me up! If you lived in the real world, with the OPD helicopters waking you up three nights a week, maybe you'd learn something required for living in a civilization, it's called tolerance. Get it?
Posted by: Larry Fine on October 20, 2003 11:00 AM*This discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.*