As Kevin Roll said, the rights of U.S. citizens are not listed in the founding documents. Rather, it is the government’s rights and powers that are enumerated. Any power other than what is specifically listed is not authorized for the government.

Privileges are granted, as by a King or other royalty. Flying is not a privilege, it is a regulated right. Any citizen who can demonstrate compliance with pilot regulations has the RIGHT to fly.

Yes, I know the FAA uses the word privilege. That doesn’t make it so. And AOPA should push to stop the use of that word. Certainly we pilot citizens should not be duped into using it.

We’re living catch-22 on a daily basis. This goes beyond aviation, and no amount of imploring that Americans divest their innate sense of personal freedom and follow security mandates is going to change it – sorry to say. In fact, if we look to child psychology, it’s easy to understand why:

- Get a briefing!
- Take your shoes off!
- No more than 3oz of liquids!
- Turn off anything with an on/off sswitch until we reach 10,000 feet!
- Don’t put thumb drives in classified computer systems!

These are all the adult equvalent of

“Don’t touch that (hot stove).”

and

“No, you can’t have a cookie (from that jar on the edge of the counter.)”

In conclusion, everything we need to know about security mandated behavior … we learned in kindergarten. This model is never going to work, and the incentive to fix it is constrained by the intransigence of financial and legal realities.

Classify the president’s location and stop putting the burden of securing his position on clueless pilots. That’s a model that would work. Too bad it will never happen. RIP Joe Heller.

I don’t want bumblebees in my airspace either, but I recognize that there is no system that will prevent them entirely that will not be too onerous to my own freedom.

Regardless of what your opinion is of flight restrictions, temporary or otherwise, we do not, as a group, appear professional, thoughtful, safe or even conscious if any of our members act “clueless”. Nearly every law or regulation out there is a result of very poor judgement by a few “unelected representatives”. I CAN NOT condone the acts of these bumble bees, regardless of the conditions by which they were snared. Justified or not, those restrictions were known if you cared enough about keeping our privileges to check into it.

Regarding restrictions, yes, the justification/implementation/notification needs some serious work, and I like the idea of ATIS/AWOS/ASOS adding the temporary ones in their recordings. Out west, they pop up for fires more than politicians and for some reason, lighting and arsonists don’t like to announce their intentions in advance. Go figure. Perhaps if we reminded the politicians about that association, they may reconsider their “no-notice” trips.

You raise some fundamental issues that are probably a “bit beyond” the scope of this blog. I know from some long conversations with AOPA’s Gov’t Affairs security folk that dealing with security people in the government is extremely challenging but there are clearly some security threats that they need to anticipate.

Are there better ways of dealing with it? Absolutely! I am guardedly optimistic that at some point more sanity may prevail but it’s going to take a lot of effort. Paradoxically, our greatest attribute of freedom is also a significant weakness that clever enemies can exploit but Benjamin Franklin perhaps has the best quote:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ”

As for the political challenges in general – follow the dictates of those who live in both Chicago and NJ –Vote early and often!