Who builds a ballon?

At the office I and others had stopped to watch the CNN breaking news of a boy who launched himself in a homemade flying machine. This balloon, flying at rapid speeds, appeared to be leading to an imminent crash, and those of us gathered began to discuss possible solutions that could be used to save the boy, such as sending paratroopers.

Meanwhile, CNN , hard at work trying to determine where his parents were and why they had a balloon, announced his father had built the balloon, at which point the reporter asked, "Who builds a balloon?"

“What the balloon was used for?” , “Why precautions to keep children from taking off in the balloon were not taken?” seemed like legitimate questions, but I was really bothered by the question "Who builds a balloon?"

As the balloon was getting lower, more people gathered. Following the reporter’s judgmental lead, the discussion shifted from praying or thinking of ways to save the boy, to that of judging the father for letting his child climb into the balloon, and even more so to "Who builds a balloon?"

Through my mind raced ideas of the Wright Brothers’ first flights, and pictures drawn out by Leonardo da Vincion his ideas for flying devices far before their time had came. Beyond seeing these great dreamers, daring to try something different, I saw the judgmental character of our generation's culture scoffing at a father, whose son was on a runaway flying object, as, after all, "Who builds a balloon?"

I thought to myself, have we drifted so far into a culture of apathy that we cast aside dreamers, that we really ask, why would a man want to build a balloon? Then I thought back to last year, when another decision to build a balloon was made. A group of campaign supporters, inspired by a once familiar message of freedom, decided that it was time to build a balloon.

Not being held back by the "you can't do that" attitude of societal norms, these free thinkers were able to raise the funds and put the effort into place to put the first ever Presidential Campaign Blimp into the sky, proclaiming loudly to the world, "Free men can do whatever they set their hearts to."

And, we do not need to look any further than that to really answer the question, "Who builds a balloon?"