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medpundit |
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Friday, June 07, 2002"Here is a great irony: We are distracting ourselves from our predicament by obsessing on our tragedy. We are investigating the systems failure of Sept. 11, and while we investigate it we are contributing to the next systems failure. Every minute, every bit of energy and focus we give to Sept. 11 is stolen from the amount of time we have to concentrate on how to avoid the next Sept. 11--and what to do if we fail and it happens. What should we be giving our attention to? What should we be passionate about, dedicated to, focused on? Here is one of many things: making sure our children are inoculated against smallpox. We know bioterrorism is more than possible, and we know few Americans under 30 have been vaccinated; we wiped out world smallpox, and stopped vaccinating in 1972. My son was born in 1987. When were your kids born? Here is another thing. Why isn't our government telling people, through television and pamphlets and speeches and announcements, what they need to do to survive a potential nuclear attack? Why aren't they launching a great campaign now to tell us what we can do in case of one? Is the government getting together the medicines and protections necessary to help the poor of the cities who, in a moment of terrorism, would have nothing to protect them? If not, why not? What should mom and dad in the suburbs do if they see a flash of light and a two mile high cloud in the city 22 miles away? Why aren't we addressing these things? In part I think because humans just aren't good at facing terrible things that are future things. They face today and think of yesterday. And in part because we are distracting our officials with the demand that they make their lame explanations for how they failed last time. Yesterday Mr. Mueller testified most of the day. I would rather he had spent the day concentrating on finding terrorists. Wouldn't you?" Yes, I would. posted by Sydney on 6/07/2002 12:59:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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