Oh, how we like to frighten ourselves and allow our imaginations and superstitions to reign supreme. Now, some in New Jersey believe they are seeing drones in the night sky nearly everywhere, and a few who believe the drones are from a “mothership” parked off the Atlantic Ocean coast.
The media are promoting it all. Even New Jersey’s governor has expressed concern, asking the federal government for assistance. Why do we so embrace nonsense?
I recall the Y2K (Year 2000) bug at the turn of the century that was supposed to destroy our computers. Consultants made fortunes performing studies, and it was all total nonsense and fear of the unknown, with promotional assistance from the media.
Now, it is mass hysteria of drones, although the military has assured us that what people are reporting is mainly airplanes that are more visible in unusually clear early evening skies.
Why would drones – and enemies or aliens from other worlds – be interested in Earth – and New Jersey in particular? Are the casinos in Atlantic City that tempting? Sigh, we humans seem so gullible.
Or is this all just a promotional stunt by the Division of Travel and Tourism to get visitors to come to New Jersey? Is Amazon secretly using drones to make nighttime deliveries? Or has Chicken Little infected the brains of politicians into believing drones are falling from the skies?
What is of real interest is the phenomenon of human fascination and belief in the extraordinary, such as unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and now drones over New Jersey.
A. Michael Noll, Los Angeles
The writer, a Newark native, is professor emeritus of communication at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He previously was an engineering researcher at Bell Labs in Murray Hill.
Drones were here before November
One of the many articles about drone sightings in the Dec. 15 print edition of the Star-Ledger states that the drones were first reported in North Jersey four weeks ago. Not true.
On June 16, 2024, I sent an e-mailed letter to the Star-Ledger voicing my concern about drones we’d been seeing flying over Point Pleasant for a few weeks, and possible spying. The letter ran under the headline “When drones can’t unsee what they’ve just seen.”
My wife and neighbor were in our backyard and heard this buzzing. When they looked up, they saw a small drone. It was hovering near them, then it flew off.
A few days later when I was sitting on my deck I heard the buzzing sound my wife told me about. Granted, I did not see a drone, but it made the same sound my wife told me about.
There’s more going on than small planes flying low and above us.
More secrets by our government?
Robert E. Malinowski, Point Pleasant
Symbols from a Notre Dame rebirth
In his guest column, “Rising from the ashes, Notre Dame can restore even a nonbeliever’s faith,” John Farmer Jr. writes of the reopening of the cathedral with the rare gift of two-generational appreciation, drawing on his journalist father’s published reflection from 2019, when Notre Dame was decimated by fire.
My World War II veteran father showed his sons Notre Dame when we were young, and I have been back several times. Farmer’s Jr.’s recent column shows how massive cultural symbols still speak to individual faith, and do so at the level of life and death.
Beauty does not erase tragedy, but it heightens the hope for a time of redemption even beyond time. The great French Protestant philosopher Paul Ricoeur, with whom French President Emanuel Macron once studied, spoke about a “second innocence” after the fires of cynicism and despair.
Notre Dame Cathedral has enacted that journey and now contains another layer of symbolic power.
Thank you, Mr. Farmer.
Rev. Christian Iosso, interim minister, Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church, Union
Winter Wonderland or winter waste?
Bergen County Executive James Tedesco and the county parks department need to reevaluate their mission.
While I appreciate their effort to create the Winter Wonderland in Van Saun Park in Paramus, and think it is great idea to bring people together and create a gathering spot, it has become a bit excessive. Do we need a Winter Wonderland that cost $1.3 million in 2023 and will probably cost more in 2024, since it has been expanded?
I found out about the price from Open Public Records Act material that I requested. Also, at least one mature tree decorated for the celebration was cut down from inside the parkland.
Since 2017, I have alerted the parks department to invasive vines in Van Saun, which have progressively spread throughout the park smothering many trees and shrubs. However, I have been told there is not enough money or manpower to address this issue, yet the county can use manpower and over $1 million for Winter Wonderland.
How many of you have seen issues in Bergen County parks such as erosion, poor walking paths and invasive vines? Imagine if the same effort to set up Winter Wonderland were used to improve the parks and plant better plant species to positively affect the environment and animals for years.
The Winter Wonderland makes many families happy, but there has to be a balance and a commensurate focus on the parks’ environment, since there is so little open space left in Bergen County. The parks department should return to its focus to improving the environment in the parks instead of opting for commercialization.
The money and manpower are clearly available. The parks department and Tedesco just need to choose to use it.
Daniel Bogan, River Edge
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