Those among us who have been objecting to the noise of aircraft from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station—Did you you happen to read in the Seattle Times a week or so ago about the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz having departed on a 6-month deployment in the western Pacific? Planes aboard are from Whidbey Island

Now that North Korea has become a really existential threat to this part of our country with its belligerence and development of inter-continental missiles, does it shed a different light on the sound of our Navy pilots perfecting their professionalism over and around our community? The noise is a major intrusion into the lives of some—a continuing discomfort. It’s more of a pragmatic reality to some of the rest of us. I don’t live in the direct flight path of the planes involved, so I’m probably not the best person to deserve having an opinion on the basis of close involvement.

I’m just saying: North Korea is pretty swiftly getting kinks out of its missile program, the current goal of which is to have the capability of reaching the western U.S. with missiles that could include nuclear warheads. And God only knows what that fat little guy with the funny haircut might do next. He’s a megalomaniac, a type we have fast been becoming acquainted with these days. A lot may be riding on our Whidbey planes and pilots if worse ever comes to worst. Puget Sound conceivably could become the next Pearl Harbor.

As with many things, the Whidbey “Growler” aircraft remain an after-the-fact NIMBY thing. The few are being sacrificed, so to speak, for the benefit of the many—and the odds are against any change, considering the big picture.

AND SPEAKING OF fat guys with funny haircuts—and existential threats—brings us to our own Donald Trump. In Donald’s case the many are being sacrificed for the benefit of the few in all manner of ways—and the odds are that there will be some changes made in that regard.

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