EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 SCIENCE

My life has turned out to be an interesting one. I’ve seen things my great-grandparents couldn’t have imagined. One example comes to mind.

A particular horror of my youth was polio. According to theMayo Clinic, “Polio is an illness caused by a virus that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. In its most severe form, polio can lead to a person being unable to move certain limbs, also called paralysis. It can also lead to trouble breathing and sometimes death. The disease also is called poliomyelitis.”

In school, we suffered through films featuring youngsters like us confined to “iron lungs” that allowed them to breath despite the ravages of polio. Epidemics would spread through our world on occasion and the fear would come home, even into our kitchens. Someone told mothers that a test for early stages of polio would be to place the child face up on the kitchen table, the head hanging down over the edge. When instructed to raise the head to be even with the body, failure to do so was a sure sign of polio.

It's impossible to explain the terror that accompanied that simple command, “Now raise your head.”

Let us give thanks to science. Again, from the Mayo Clinic “A vaccination effort throughout the world has led to only a small number of cases to occur around the world in recent years. But poliovirus still spreads within areas with low vaccination rates.”

Science also gave us penicillin, antibiotics, x-rays, plastic surgeries, clean water, weather reporting and countless other benefits of modern life.

Sadly, in my state, we have applied the brakes to such progress. As I said, I’ve led an interesting life. Two college degrees, four years of military duty, a marriage in its 53^rd year, and a long career as a fairly well-respected professional brought me to a comfortable retirement, well … a comfortable semi-retirement. I still putter.

After all this, my family’s tax dollars go to schools that teach young Americans that science is not only suspect, but also false, and even evil in the sight of imaginary deities.

A White House spokesperson even coined the term “alternative facts” to justify lying to the American public and threatened loss of access to reporters who didn’t accept them.

Powerful groups, aided by media nonchalance are undermining the use of vaccines such as the ones that have diminished the horrors of smallpox and polio.

It is possible now for a child to complete college believing that the universe is no more than 6,000 years old and science that eliminated polio is the work of some imaginary demonic force.

I've lived and interesting life but not always one that made a lot of sense.

The Evangelical's Dream

Sailing To Oblivium: August 27, 2017

Contemplating the epochal tragedy in Texas, we are blessed that a highly functioning public agency provided a detailed warning. Further, the existence of an agency standing by to help the victims of the tragedy provides an additional blessing. It bolsters my belief that good government can be a force for good in our country.

Imagine a “libertarian dream” in which there is no National Weather Service (NWS) nor its parent agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Also imagine there is no Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) waiting to provide help during and after such terrible weather events.

I’ve always wondered how Ronald Reagan would have been able to sleep at night watching the aftermath of a 9-11, or scenes of a storm such as the one in Texas. Among other things, he immortalized the phrase, so popular with the greedy and uneducated, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”

Hogwash. Someday we might discuss the perceived injustice of regulations that discourage or prevent people from making catastrophic settlement decisions. For now, though, let us praise the women and men of the agencies standing by to provide some measure of help to our brothers and sisters in the Lone Star State.

The workers in these agencies are highly skilled in areas such as science, mathematics, physics, computer technology, meteorology, statistics, public administration, and planning. They stand among us as some of the best and brightest. Their service to us, as I say, provides a blessing. Their skill and education form a solid first defense against natural disasters. Their agencies, along with an educational system that creates the expertise, remain national treasures.

Pity future generations when these same agencies are managed and operated solely by individuals who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, climate science is a hoax, and that it could rain for 40 days straight across the entire planet, but a man and his sons could build a boat that would preserve two members of every species on earth, even, according to some, a pair of the species Tyrannosaurus rex.

That’s why, in my opinion and mine alone, I think we need to, for future generations, elect better people to run our government, including people who believe in education and facts.

As for our national ship of state, again I recommend the immortal call, at end of day, from my beloved United States Navy: “Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a good clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the fantail!”

Indeed.