I was speaking with an old friend about the state of our nation the other day and was struck by a thought: Where did the terms “right wing” and “left wing” in relation to politics come from? I could only think of two areas where those terms come into common use outside of politics. One, of course, is architecture, where most buildings with “wings” are considered aesthetically more pleasing if the wings are equal and are balanced on either side of a central dominating structure.
The other, and the one that came to mind first, was flight. The dominance of one wing or the other in this example, for any but the briefest of moments, results generally in disaster. And in the ideal state of straight and level flight the wings have to work in perfect harmony. It is the job of the pilot seated in the fuselage of a plane to see to that balance for the best and only acceptable outcome: the continued safe operation of the plane and the occupants therein.
No airline would hire a pilot who repeatedly denigrated or abused one wing of the plane or the other, or attempted to destroy one wing or the other and attempted to continue to fly the plane. That could only end in overwhelming tragedy. So why do we continue to try and operate a country that way, the complexity of which is at least as interconnected, and the results of failure even more devastating?
Bob Barr, Salt Lake City
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/31lNzVQ
October 19, 2020 at 08:27AM
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