By
MARSHA MERCER
A Florida
mailman named Doug Hughes Wednesday piloted his “flying bicycle” past the White
House and Washington Monument, over the National Mall and landed on the West Lawn
of the U.S. Capitol.
The twitterverse
chirped with praise – but not for the police who showed restraint when they
could have shot down the unauthorized intruder.
Not for the
authorities who took Hughes, 61, of Ruskin, Fla., to jail instead of the
morgue.
And certainly
not for members of Congress, staffers and others who stayed calm while the
Capitol was locked down on yet another frightening day at work.
Amazingly,
the praise was for Hughes, who brought with him 535 stamped letters he had
written to protest political corruption. He wanted to deliver his mail to every
member of Congress. As if that would ever happen.
Among
the tweets: “Modern American hero.” “One
of the Truest Americans of our time.” “My kind of hero.” “There’s not a single
American politician with as much integrity or courage as #Doug Hughes.”
Really?
Tampa
Bay Times reporter Ben Montgomery, who wrote about Hughes, called him “a mix of P.T. Barnum and Paul
Revere (who) wanted to do something so big and brazen that it would hijack the
news cycle and turn America’s attention toward his pet issue: campaign finance
reform.”
Since
9/11, flying over Washington without special approval has been prohibited, and
Hughes deliberately violated the no-fly zone to make news. He insisted he had
no violent inclinations or intent.
Montgomery
expected Hughes to be shot down, but Hughes had faith in law enforcement.
“I don’t
believe that the authorities are going to shoot down a 60-year-old mailman in a
flying bicycle,” Hughes told Montgomery last year. The Times held its story
until the flight was underway. Hughes also posted his tale on his Web site, The
Democracy Club.
The
Secret Service, which interviewed him in 2013, doubtlessly will have to explain
what, if anything, it did to try to stop the escapade.
Whatever
his intentions, Hughes’s flight was a dumb stunt. It could have ended very
badly, not just for him but for innocent bystanders. His feat may make him a hero
to some, but surely no one thinks that his reckless adventure will jumpstart
campaign finance reform.
How he
pulled off his flight by gyrocopter -- a small type of helicopter in which the
pilot sits in the open air -- seems made for Hollywood. Let’s imagine that there
is a movie and it makes a ton of money, which enriches movie moguls who then stuff
even more obscene amounts of cash into politicians’ campaign pockets. Congratulations,
Mister Hughes.
Fortunately,
nothing bad happened and nobody got hurt.
In
October 2013, Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police fatally shot Miriam Carey,
34, a dental hygienist from Connecticut, after her car rammed a White House
barrier, setting off a chase to Capitol Hill. Carey’s
13-month-old daughter survived without physical injuries in a car seat. The U.S. attorney said the shooting was legally justified and
the officers were not charged.
Hughes,
who had a U.S. Postal Service
decal on his flying machine, did get Washington’s attention.
“This
individual apparently literally flew in under the radar. Literally,” Homeland
Security secretary Jeh Johnson told reporters.
The
chairman of the Senate Homeland Security committee launched an investigation of
the security breach.
“I am
deeply concerned that someone has the ability to fly for over an hour through
the most restricted airspace in our country, past the White House, and land on
the lawn of the Capitol,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
If Hughes
achieves anything besides notoriety, it may be tighter security and more worry
for an already tightly buttoned nation’s capital. In January, a recreational drone inadvertently passed over the White
House fence and crashed onto the grounds, raising new questions about how to
protect against small devices that could carry lethal cargo.
Hughes’s
cause was worthy, his delivery all wrong. Big money dominates our politics, and
the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission
made the problem worse.
We need
campaign finance reform. We do not need “heroes” who take meaningless flights
of fancy.
© 2015
Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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