Biden owes us an explanation about threats

On Sunday afternoon, I got a text from my mother-in-law. She had just seen a news alert that the Federal Aviation Administration and North American Air Defense had temporarily closed the airspace over Lake Michigan. My husband’s parents live near the lake and were a bit concerned.

“Do I need to go to the basement??” she wrote.

She was largely kidding, but at the same time, I think my mother-in-law hit on the unease most of us have felt in recent days.

The object that caused concern over Lake Michigan apparently then floated over the state before a fighter jet shot it down over Lake Huron – closer to the side of the state where I live. It’s all getting a little too close to home.

President Joe Biden owes the country an explanation. This latest incident marks the third object that had to be shot down over North America in three days – and the fourth since the United States took out the Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast Feb. 4.

It’s unclear whether these latest “objects” are also Chinese, but that seems a fair guess. And it’s alarming what that country’s intentions could be.

We’ve not yet heard anything that direct from Biden. In his State of the Union address last week, Biden spent little time on China and mentioned the spy balloon only in passing.

Now that there have been three other similar instances, Biden owes us answers. Are we in any danger of war? Should we expect these unidentified flights to continue? Are there any risks to commercial air travel?

It’s a little hard to take “balloons” as overly threatening. Yet when they are as big – 200 feet – as the one that the U.S. military downed over the Atlantic Ocean, that’s a very different situation, especially when combined with the obvious intent to spy. China is obviously gathering data about our country for a reason, but to what end?

No doubt, the federal government is still collecting information about these objects, but in the meantime, our president should address the country directly, with the seriousness the situation deserves.