May 15, 2007
By
Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:04am
I was over the drop zone in Zephyr Hills with two clients, midway through a tandem jump. The day was bright and clear and the wind was not a problem. It’s a rush up there. I've been jumping since I was 18.
It was on my fifth jump that day when I saw something running around on the grass by the drop zone. He was about the same green as the grass in the morning sun, so it was hard keeping track of him. But pretty soon I saw other jumpers moving around near there too. I started to worry that maybe someone had a band landing, or something.
We were nearly to the ground when I heard him speaking. He had a calm voice and everyone around had gotten all quiet to listen. I wanted to bust out the champagne, which we do sometimes for clients – but the couple who I’d jumped with said wait, they knew who this green guy was.
Well, I won’t go into everything I heard that morning – you probably know it all already – but it was quite an education for me – I dropped out of community college when the diving business got good.
And I did get the chance to talk with him a little bit later. He asked me what it really felt like being up in the air, falling fast, not knowing where you were going to land. I told him what it was like for me, but after a couple minutes he just nodded and said “I do know what that’s like.â€
Habeas seems like a nice guy. Kinda deep. But I'm a believer now. I hope people can help him. And if you see him, tell him he’s still welcome to a free lesson any time.
-- Zach Orrigan, Zephyr Hills, FL
Have you seen Habeas? Send us your sightings at aclu@aclu.org.
