I Publius: We all are vulnerable
I was speaking with the Lovely Roselle the other night, and she asked me what we would do if we were forced to evacuate our house on the hill in Great Barrington. I scratched my head and told her that I couldn't imagine why we would have to leave on a few hours' notice like the folks on the Gulf Coast. Then I began to think about it. The more I thought, the more I realized that none of us are immune.

Obviously, terrorists are just that. They engage in terror. They usually look for the most public kind of targets, like the World Trade Center, to show that they can go wherever they want at will. But when denied access to major targets, they might do what is being done in Iraq right now. They might go into any neighborhood to do their worst.

For years, Hamas has terrorized Israeli neighborhoods where good, simple people live their civilian lives. As long as misguided folks are willing to wire themselves with explosives and blow themselves and everyone within range sky high, terrorism will be with us.

We have known for years that terrorists are looking for even more lethal, nuclear weapons. Based on how much they get — and we are told that the Russians have done a lousy job of keeping tabs on all their missiles and warheads — it is unlikely, but conceivable, that someone could throw one our way. What if North Korea did? Again, highly unlikely but possible. Even if New York were the target, fallout would affect those many miles from Ground Zero. Does anyone have the slightest doubt that these people will try it again? Any number of top officials in this country will tell you that it is not a matter of if, but when.

Then, too, there is always the possibility of natural disasters. Not all that long ago, folks to the north of us were awakened by an earthquake. Are you absolutely sure it couldn't happen here? Remember the tornado that visited the Berkshires several years back? What if we got hit by a much bigger version or several of them at once?

What if there was a horrible chemical spill? What if we were told to run for our lives? Would you know where to run? Does your family have a plan? Do you have a way of being in touch? When we were in Italy on 9/11, our kids knew enough to both call into the radio station and at home to let us know that they were safe. There are a lot of people down South who still don't know who in their family is alive.

One of the big fights in my house is whether to get a generator for those times when the electricity fails. Assuming that something awful happens, what do you have in your basement? Would it be a good idea to order up several cases of tuna fish or Spam or brown rice? How much fuel do you keep on hand? How much bottled water? What about fire extinguishers? Remember, all it takes is one terrible, unexpected event to turn a lot of people's worlds upside down. Do you remember reading about the San Francisco fire? Are you absolutely sure that a series of events or acts of arson couldn't turn your neighborhood into a burning hell?

What would you expect from your government if a pandemic or a massive fire or a terrorist bomb hit your neighborhood? Would you expect that the government and voluntary organizations would ensure that you were rescued, had a hot meal and were taken to a safe place?

Obviously, the U.S. government has seriously failed in the Katrina crisis. There are so many investigations into what happened that we will be sorting things out for quite some time. The evidence is pretty clear that there were serious failures at all levels of government, but especially the federal government, regarding the need to move quickly to ensure that lives and property were saved. The phenomenal gall of the president to say that he would personally be leading an investigation into what went wrong is unbelievable. This would appear to have Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it. I remember when Nixon pulled the same kind of stunt during Watergate.

The hurricane exposed the divisions of class and race in this country. After all these years, we still live in a society deeply split, with a huge gap between rich and poor, white and black. We are all in this together. If there is a single silver lining in this awful mess, it is that people are coming together and understanding how they would want to be treated if it happened to them.

Originally published in The Berkshire Eagle, 9/10/05
- posted by Raymond @ 9/12/2005 11:38:00 AM

 
The Capitol Connection: There really ought to be a law
There really ought to be a law.

Some folks believe that if we pass certain laws, we will all be safer. If we had certain laws and if we could convince people to obey them, people would live longer and present less of a clear and present physical and economic danger to the rest of us. The problem is that we've have even more laws on the books that most people wouldn't obey. When that happens, you get a lawless society. Worse yet, passing them might just incite a revolution. It's hard to argue with the merits of some of these propositions but people would rebel against the idea that we should be told what to do. Nevertheless, the idea is worth exploring.

For example, it should probably be against the law to be fat. I mean, if you think about it, being fat probably kills more people than any illicit drug you ever heard of. Fat probably kills more people than drunken drivers or even unspeakable wars entered into by cowboy Presidents. That's right, the rise in diabetes as well as a host of other well known contemporary diseases like heart attack and stroke and even cancer, has been associated with obesity.
Some well-meaning legislators have proposed a host of half way measures. Some want a total ban on introducing fat laden foods to our kids at school. Makes sense to me. Some school districts are already doing just that. If it's good for some it is probably a good idea to make it mandatory for all.

But why stop there? More physical education in schools so would ensure that our kids start on regimens of life-giving exercise that might keep those fat cells from growing even fatter. Why not outlaw life-draining sugar from our sodas and candy? We know that's where the danger is. If you were to reduce the number of useless calories we eat, you'd see a very slimmed down population. Study after study suggest the low carbers are right. Cavemen were pretty thin. They ran away from animals a lot (compulsory exercise) and, when they prevailed over the animals and turned the tables, they ate a lot of meat, any meat. They did not eat a lot of sugar and starch. So if you think about it and you really want to save a lot of American lives, outlaw processed sugar in its contemporary forms.

Some legislators have proposed another good idea: putting calorie and cholesterol labels on every menu next to the choices that diners are offered. That plan is excellent. I know one health spa (fat farm) that has been doing that for years. I have a wonderful doctor friend who is signing up restaurants to offer "heart healthy diets" which will tell the consumer what they are getting. If the restaurants agree, they are listed on a prestigious "heart healthy" cardiology page.
Of course, you'd have to really think about outlawing most of the fast food joints we have in this country. I mean, come on, we all know that film "Super Size Me." We know that some of these foods are quite bad for your health. Probably a lot worse than, let's just say, marijuana, which has put a lot of people in prison. But shouldn't our fast food places be outlawed if they are really worse than smoking weed?

You know I'm right. "We have met the enemy and he is us," said master philosopher Pogo. Why go half way? Until we really get to the root causes of fatness (our inability to stay away from bad stuff) we will always have obesity. In fact, we could, and should, outlaw all that bad stuff (it will probably take a Democrat to do what's right). I'm telling you right here and now put your money in broccoli futures. (Mmmm).

Skip the half way measures and just outlaw fat. In the name of public safety, it might be a good idea to retrain all our traffic cops. They're already telling us that our speed will kill us. Now they can carry around tape measures and measure our bellies for our own good. If we're overweight, we'd get ticketed and we'd have to appear before a fat judge who would fine us for endangering us, our health care system and our society. There would obviously have to be a Fat Commissioner, I mean a Commissioner of Fat, who would be charged with making people obey the law.

I weigh a hundred and thirty four pounds. I work at it every day: exercise, eating right and following all (well, most) of the rules. Why shouldn't everyone else? It's too basic to deny. We need laws against fat.

Next week I'll be telling you why we need sex police.
- posted by Raymond @ 9/12/2005 11:21:00 AM