USEFUL LESSONS SHOULDN'T BE PUNISHED

The trial and punishment of the Florida U.S. Postal worker is near its conclusion. It seemed like a curiously American idea for marketing an idea: Fly a tiny gyrocopter from Pennsylvania to the United States Capitol grounds and deliver to each of the 535 U.S. senators and representatives a stamped letter, carrying his plea for election campaign funding reform.

On April 15, 2015 Mr. Doug Hughes, a 61-year old man from Ruskin, Florida, landed his gyrocopter on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, where he was soon thereafter arrested by U.S. Capitol Police. After his flying machine was checked by a robotic bomb detecting machine and then by U.S. Capitol Police bomb experts, it was secured by authorities, and Mr. Hughes was arrested. Subsequently, Mr. Hughes was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors.

Prior to his quixotic mission, Mr. Hughes had informed the Tampa Bay Times of his plan. He had stated that he was not a terrorist, that he was not planning to collide with any building, and that his mission was not one of terror but of education. He also emailed the White House office of President Barack Obama to apprise him of his educational plan and marketing approach. [This apparently led to a visit by Secret Service agents to the home and/or office of Douglas Hughes in 2014 to obtain a better understanding of this man. He was not arrested nor, apparently, strongly discouraged in regard to his idea(s).]

The misdemeanor federal laws he broke were 1) violation of national defense airspace (3 counts) and 2) operating a vehicle falsely labeled as a postal carrier (1 count). The two felonies were 1) flying without an airman’s certification and 2) flying an aircraft not registered with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Essentially, Mr. Hughes was a U.S. Postal employee delivering 535 stamped letters. Unfortunately, his vehicle was not official, the letters were not assigned to him in the official U.S. Postal procedure, and he was not assigned to deliver letters to the U.S. Capitol. Of course, there were the other issues regarding flying a vehicle legally in America.

However, it might be said that American aviation would not even exist were there not men such as Douglas Hughes with dreams of flying a vehicle on some sort of mission. Could the Wright brothers have flown their plane under current United States law? Could any of the “barnstorming” aviators gotten anywhere under current United States law other than jail?

Further, Mr. Douglas Hughes provided highly instructive lessons, en passant, on rather marked deficiencies in the airspace defense around the U.S. Capitol and, indeed, the whole Washington, D.C. area. Please note: none of the major media outlets had a clue in regard to these defense deficiencies – even though there had been several occasions when tiny, unmanned drones had flown in the area. These latter instances had generated warnings of potential terror attacks by such or similar means. The major American media has been most devoutly interested in cheerleading the acceptance of “new cultural idioms” so that their exhausted analysts would have little energy left for unexpected defensive issues of a national character.

As the mission of Doug Hughes proved so embarrassing to the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service (once again) and, indeed, the Pentagon, they decided to make an example of Mr. Hughes to cover-up their own ineptitude. The flight of Doug Hughes was seen by many live. Later, the whole nation could view the singular event on the Internet and television. The fedcops and Pentagon apparently felt that they had to make an example of Mr. Hughes to obscure the educationally instructive aspect of his flight, regarding national security and defense planning. The defense planning network in the United States immediately understood the potential danger had ISIS or al Qaeda schemers stumbled on the gyrocopter as a mode of terror. 

The most important issue now is not punishing Douglas Hughes; it is: Have the Pentagon and fedcops learned anything from this event? Are they capable of addressing potential dangers, when they cannot even imagine them?

In short, who is the real villain here? Was Douglas Hughes a bad person? The answer is: Certainly not. However, his thinking might be a bit loose, but that is the joy of it. His mission was quixotic – not criminal in the usual connotation. 

Parenthetically, there can be no senator or representative in the U.S. Capitol who does not very clearly understand the issue of raising campaign money. Mr. Hughes’ issue is very valid and should be addressed in such a way that elected representation more closely reflects the general constituencies rather than gaggles of very rich individuals and corporations, often located outside the jurisdiction of the individual seeking election, who/which have personal or private agendas. The U.S. senators and representatives cannot or will not change the laws on campaign funding. The Supreme Court appears to view campaign donations as “free speech.” Hence, maybe only a grassroots method initiated by people such as Mr. Douglas Hughes could generate the required pressure to effect change in favor of democracy. Otherwise, plutocracy will continue to shape policy in America.

I do not believe that Doug Hughes should receive a day of jail time beyond what he may have endured since his arrest on the day of April 15, 2015. He might be fined a modest penalty and ordered to obtain a FDA license, if he intends to fly in the future. He must be ordered to have his gyrocopter registered, if required by law.

Mr. Hughes has been fired by the U.S. Postal Service. He has little or no money, net. He should be helped - and not harmed by undue application of punitive laws. His flight was a very useful eye-opener to “those with eyes to see…”