Stuck In Traffic #6 �
by Calvin Stacy Powers
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Reacting to the Oklahoma City Bombing
April 30th
Even before the dust had settled from the Oklahoma City bombing,
even while we were still trying to identify the victims' bodies in
the rubble, public policy makers were telling us what should be
done about it. Politicians, interest groups and government
agencies have reacted almost instantly, as if there is some
unwritten assumption that whoever can react to the news fastest
will have a competitive advantage in selling their proposals to
the public. It's one of the tragedies of electoral democracy in
the information age; public policy makers react to the "what"
without understanding or even caring about the "why." No one yet
knows why the Oklahoma City bombing happened. We only know that
it happened. In fact we don't even know who did it yet. Of the
two suspects so far in the case, only one is in custody and he
hasn't made any statements to date. And the suspect is still just
that, only a suspect. So any proposals on what should be done
about the Oklahoma City bombing are strictly reactionary and
premature.
No one would go to a doctor and allow him to start prescribing
medicines and treatments until the doctor had diagnosed the cause
of our illness. Any treatments the doctor would prescribe could
only treat the symptoms, not the real cause of the illness. Any
doctor that practiced medicine this way would lose his license.
No one would let a mechanic tell us what needs to be done to our
car before he even popped the hood and figured out what was wrong.
Any mechanic doing this would immediately become suspect. Is he
trying to sell us parts and services we don't really need? How
can the mechanic possibly know? Is he trying to push something on
us? Is he trying to make a fast buck?
But for some reason this reactionary mode of action is tolerated
among politicians and public policy makers. In fact, the age of
instant news encourages it. We haven't even buried the dead and
the various political factions and interest groups are already
trying to pin the blame on each other. Witness the Clinton
administration's attempt to link the bombing with `right-wing'
radio talk shows. Witness fringe elements of the right trying to
link the bombing to the government's assault on the Branch
Davidians. Witness gun- control lobbyists trying to pin blame for
the bombings on the National Rifle Association despite that fact
that, as far as we know, no guns were involved in this tragedy.
To date, no motive has been established for the bombing. We don't
know if this bombing was product of a deranged lunatic or if it is
part of an organized conspiracy from a terrorist group. But
government law enforcement agencies like the FBI, the BATF, and
the DEA are already telling us how they need more police state
powers to prevent this sort of terrorism from happening again.
They want more power to spy on citizens, more power to infiltrate
organizations, more power to restrict the activities of peaceful
citizens. There is even talk of using the United States military
on domestic law enforcement issues.
When we know why the Oklahoma City bombing was committed, it will
be time to discuss how it happened and what can be done to prevent
similar incidents in the future. It will be time to take a hard
look at the state of the country and where it is heading. When we
know what motivated the bombings, it will be time to pass
judgement on who is to blame.
Until then, the appropriate action is to focus on cleaning up the
mess and helping the victims families put their lives back
together. It's encouraging to note that the vast majority of
people in America, those without an agenda or personal axe to
grind, are doing just that. People from all over the country are
donating money, food, blood, and time to the relief effort,
helping out in whatever way they can. Politicians worthy of our
respect will be doing likewise, personally helping out on the
relief effort.
It's time for Americans to take note of the politicians, interest
groups and government agencies that are trying to capitalize on
the Oklahoma City bombing to promote their own agendas and give
them all the same respect due to a doctor who prescribes medicines
with out diagnosing the illness and all the respect due a mechanic
trying to sell us parts and services we don't need, which is no
respect at all.
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"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head
and hands, and then work outward from there." --Robert M. Pirsig
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Hot Times
It was a little later than usual this year, but summer has finally
made it into the Carolinas and I like it. It's been sunny and
bright. We had our first 90 degree day last week. Now, I'm not
exactly the outdoors-type. It's not that I'm into the summer
sports. It's highly unlikely you'll ever catch me water-skiing,
or surfing or mountain climbing. I'll never be asked to be in one
of those beer commercials that show all these happy people
enthusiastically exhausting them selves in a tropical paradise. I
can appreciate these things, but I don't seek them out. Summer,
for me, is not great because it's an opportunity to pursue
summertime activities. I like summer for the heat.
Yes, it's uncomfortable. Yes, humidity sucks. But summer is
great because it's not Winter. To me winter is a huddle around
the fire and try to survive time. But summer is a supercharged
with life kind of time. Everything is suddenly supercharged with
energy. The sun beats down on everything like a cosmic battery.
All the creepy crawly things come out and creep and crawl as if
they're in some weird energizer bunny commercial. The
neighborhood wildlife, the squirrels, the occasional rabbit, and
even a deer on occasion are out in force. Doing whatever it is
they do. And people are out and about too, doing what ever it is
people do. Here in Cary, the model suburban community, people are
working in their yards, holding garage sales, riding their bikes,
taking walks with their families, playing various types of ball,
mostly softball these days. The summer heat, to my mind at least,
is more energizing than it is oppressive.
Of course it's totally legitimate to argue just the opposite, that
Winter is a much better time than summer. There are winter people
and there are summer people. To each his own. I don't bring this
up merely to extol the virtues of Summer or to convert Winter
People to be Summer People. I bring this up in order to preface
an admission from me about one of my strange habits, a peculiarity
of mine, so that you might understand it a little. Or at least I
hope you won't think I'm totally bonkers.
Now don't jump to conclusions. It's not _that_ weird. A mere
eccentricity. There no need to call 911.
I discovered this affinity in college. I went to school at Texas
A&M University, which is, literally "deep in the heart" of Texas.
If you were to look at an outline of the state of Texas and were
asked to draw an x "deep in the heart" of Texas, chances are you'd
draw it real close to where I went to school. Texas A&M is
located in a town called College Station, so named because the
principal way you used to get to it was by train, and you got off
the train at the station where the college was. But
geographically speaking, the surrounding area is known as the
Brazos Valley.
Valley? They have valleys in Texas? Well, you have to understand
that Texans get rather optimistic when describing their landscape.
They have to. In Texas, any running water that is too wide to
straddle with both legs is called a River, Even if the so-called
river is just a muddy puddle of water for several months of the
year. So the Brazos Valley isn't exactly a Valley, per se. It's
not like you can see raised land surrounding the area. And
certainly the area isn't surrounded by mountains, as one would
expect from a more traditional valley. The Brazos Valley is just
another big wide plain that isn't quite flat, it has vaguely
rolling hills. But if you look at the area on a larger scale, it
is true that it is in something of a depression. It's slightly
lower than the surrounding areas. But you have to be a pretty
astute geologist to notice. But the geography does have an affect
on the local whether. Unlike the flat plains in the panhandle
region of Texas, there isn't a lot of wind in the Brazos Valley.
And weather systems tend sort of ooze into the Brazos Valley and
just sit there for a while. This is especially true in the
summer. Hot humid air just settles into the region and stays for
weeks on end. A walk across the street in College Station in the
middle of August is enough to get yourself drenched with sweat.
Now, A&M is in many respects a fairly typical college campus, with
one notable exception. It's big. I mean really big. When I was
there, the average enrollment each year was in the neighborhood of
30,000 students. In terms of sheer acreage, A&M has the largest
campus in the United States. The savvy student always scheduled
at least 30 minutes between classes because when you registered
for classes you couldn't always tell which building your classes
were going to be in and sometimes you really did need 30 minutes
to get from one building to another.
And as is typical for many college campuses, parking was a
problem, to say the least. For the most part, if you lived
off-campus like I did, you rode your bike to school or rode the
bus. Parking on campus simply wasn't much of an option. Except
if you were in the Engineering college, like I was. (An
interesting historical note for computer geeks: At A&M, until
recently, the computer science was actually considered a branch of
industrial engineering.) But I digress. The main building where
the Engineering classes were was called the Zachary Engineering
Building and it was located on the edge of campus. Not a very
convenient location, relative to the other buildings on campus but
was right next to one of the few parking lots reserved for
students.
Let me tell you about this parking lot. It is huge. Huge doesn't
even begin to describe it. Think of your average shopping mall
and think of the entire parking lot for that mall. Now imagine
the mall removed and paved over with a parking lot. Now you're
getting close to imagining the size of this parking lot. But as
big as it was, the Zachary parking lot filled up fast. I used to
get to campus by about 8:00 in the morning and the lot would
already be half full, so I basically had to park smack dab in the
middle of it. One quickly learned to count the number of rows you
passed on your way to the Zachary building so you knew which row
you had parked on. Otherwise, you might not ever find your car
again.
The first year I attended Summer session at A&M, I had two or
three classes in the morning and finished up around 2 in the
afternoon, at which point I would head back to my apartment.
OK, now I've set the stage enough I think. Imagine. Brazos
Valley Texas. In the middle of a typically hot, sticky August
Day. The temperature is easily in into triple digits. The
humidity is close to triple digits despite it being a perfectly
sunny day. There is little to no breeze. My car has been sitting
in the dead middle of the mother of all parking lots. Locked.
The windows rolled up. It's time to get in it and go back home.
Imagine. Imagine the inside of that car.
I loved it.
I used to unlock the door and hop inside and just sit there for a
few minutes. I didn't roll down the windows or anything. You
didn't notice anything for about 5 seconds and then the heat
started searing through your clothes and sinking into your flesh
like some specially designed chemical. Your outer skin turns to
water. Your clothes get soaked. And when the heat sinks into
your chest, your heart starts beating faster. Your eyes start to
water. And the really bizarre thing is that your tears actually
feel cool around the corner of your eyes despite the fact that
there is no breeze to fan them. And when your heart starts
beating fast like that you start breathing faster. It's not like
you're gasping for breath or anything. Breathing is not any
trouble. It's just that your lungs have to all of a sudden keep
up with your heart or something. Unless someone was waiting for
me to leave so they could get my parking spot, I would sit in my
car, with the windows rolled up for 4 or 5 minutes, just revelling
in the heat.
I have no idea what the actual temperature was in there. I never
measured. But I can tell you that I experienced heat and I liked
it.
===========================
Life's Little Mysteries #47
Why is it that the sound of chirping crickets, outside, late at
night is soothing and relaxing, but the sound of a single chirping
cricket in your bedroom can keep you up all night?
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Chiliholic Poster Child: Sassy!
(From a news wire report circulated on the Internet)
Sassy, the 2-ton elephant, queen of the Spalding Brothers Tent
Circus, suffered a bout with gas that nearly killed her trainer,
and blasted several holes in the striped tent where she was
practicing her prancing.
Now dubbed Sassy the Gassy Pachyderm, the 14-year-old beast
snorted approximately 15 gallons of red-hot Tex-Mex chili cooking
outside the tent for a Rotary fund raiser.
Sassy developed a taste for chili as a mere 500-pound babe when
she lived with a herd of cows near El Paso, Texas. The rancher
held regular cook-outs, and let Sassy lick the Chili pot after the
guests had gone. "The hotter the better," recalls rancher Antonio
Guayabera. "She'd poke her little fuzzy trunk in there and slurp
'til it was clean as a whistle.
"I'd notice the next day, though, the cows would stick to one end
of the field and Sassy would be all by herself at the other. "I
always thought someone was burning garbage, but I finally realized
it was Sassy and cut off her bean supply. It was making the cows'
milk sour."
Antonio, who got the baby elephant as a gag gift from an oilman
friend of his, sold Sassy to the circus and trainer Fritz
Hildebrand made her queen of the center ring.
"I discovered the first month I had Sassy that she loved chili,
but it didn't love her," says Fritz. "We had to keep the
roustabouts with their open cook- stoves away, because she would
smell those beans simmering and start hooting and hollering to get
it.
"We only let her have her way once," Fritz says, shaking his head.
"We had to walk her a mile away and leave her penned there a whole
day."
Human memories dim, but elephants never forget, and with chili
pots bubbling it was just a matter of time before Sassy slipped
her trunk through a hole in the tent and started gobbling.
"I knew I had to get her out of there - and fast," says Fritz from
his hospital bed. "But I wasn't fast enough. As I led her away,
the gas attack started. I should have known better than to stand
too close, but the first blast blew me right through the tent and
into a trailer parked outside."
Fritz suffered 15 broken bones, including one arm, one leg, his
collarbone, several ribs and fingers. Subsequent blasts ripped
through the big top before Sassy was banished to a distant field.
"I know she feels bad," concludes the forgiving trainer. "Sassy's
a chiliholic, and she just can't help herself."
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"The problem with computers is there's not enough Africa in them."
--Brian Eno
===========================
Helms Steps In It (Reprise)
Junto readers may recall a couple of issues back I wrote of the
flap surrounding Senator Jesse Helms's comment that Clinton
shouldn't visit our state's military bases without a body guard.
In "Helms Steps In It!" I commented on the fact that other
politicians have made similarly outrageous comments with out
touching off the same firestorm. In "Helms Steps In It?" I posed
the possibility that Helms remarks may have been a well calculated
publicity stunt, noting that his comments were made directly to
reporters whom he knew to be unsympathetic to him, and noting that
Helms seems to know how to play to the media to get his message
out to conservative voters.
Now, in this month's Liberty Magazine, Chester Alan Arthur notes
that on May 20th, the road running in front of the White House was
closed to vehicular traffic in order better protect the President
from intruders.
==============
Safety Buckets
Contructive advice from the federal government as reported by the
Detroit News:
"After researching ways to redesign 5 gallon buckets to prevent
infinats from climbing into them and drowning, the Consumer
Product Safety Commission recommended that the manufacturers
produce buckets that leak." (From Libery magazine)
======================
He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads,
reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in
scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own."
--Caleb Colton
======================
Whether he likes it or not, man is the instrument of nature; it
forces on him its character and appearance." --Picasso
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Stuck In Traffic is a bi-monthly e-zine edited by, and mostly
written by Calvin Stacy Powers. Copyrights of individual articles
are held by their respective authors. All unsigned work is
authored by Calvin Stacy Powers, who holds all copyrights.
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