How we think/not think Part one

You fill up your glass of water and put it on a wobbly table or chair. A few minutes later you bump into the table and the water spills all over the floor. Some people will say this is bad luck, not their day, shoot even say it is part of God's plan.

You wash your hair in the sink. This goes on day in and day out until one day the sink backs up. Again some people say this is bad luck, not their day, they are cursed, etc...

I know you get these two situations are the fault of the person, one for not being aware of their surroundings and the other for not planning or paying attention to the long term consequences of their actions. Especially for the second scenario we tend to ignore what we are doing because we cannot see the consequences until it is too late. And for both scenarios once the damage is done we go into reactive mood. We clean up the spilled water and call the plumber for the sink or if blessed with mechanical skills we fix it ourselves. Do we fix the table though? Some might. Do we change our habits and not wash our hair in the sink? Or at least clean out the sink every now and then. Some might.

Now how does a larger group handle the situation? Does everyone in the family wash their hair in the sink? Do they stop or do some stop and others go on. Who has to monitor the sink to keep it clean? Or does it back up again and the family goes into reactive mood to fix it? And once it backs up again, does the family learn from their mistakes? Do they put into place a cleaning schedule to prevent this in the future? Or find a new place to wash their hair and avoid the problem altogether? And if they make a change do they think about it and wash their hair in an environment that avoids potential future problems.

What we can see is that the smaller the group responsible for actions the better the chances the next disaster can be prevented. Why can't we take this to the next step and do it for a much larger group such as a city, state, or even at the national level. We can see problems, we can fix problems, but when we rely on people we hire to take care of problems we rely more on a reactive mood than do any planning to prevent problems.

First off, the tragedy that is occurring in Oklahoma is terrible. Anything we can do to help is wonderful, but when the mayor of Moore Oklahoma the week after the tornadoes struck says why didn't we have basements in our homes and proposed a new city ordinance saying all new homes will need basements isn't he failing the people he is suppose to be leading. Now, that is harsh, everyone there is going through some terrible days right now, but I want to address how we think/not think. Tornadoes have been part of the landscape in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc for long before we showed up and started living in these states. And in many rural homes there are tornado shelters. In the Wizard of Oz everyone, but Dorothy makes it into their shelter. Yet here is someone that probably grew up in Oklahoma, has become Mayor and only when there is a disaster does he address a most fundamental need. And this is not his fault. This is how we think. We fail to realize how to plan at large levels. Or is it because we can't find the will to plan at large levels? And is this a failure of society? Or a failure of political leadership? Or of ourselves?

I am talking more than just the tornado situation. (and by the way, please give to the disaster relief organizations helping out there and everywhere that a disaster occurs. We cannot prevent what nature does, but until we get it right we have to help our fellow man.) This type of situation prevails in our country. We wait until it is too late then bemoan how bad our luck, or that we must have offended God, or because so and so got elected and not somebody else. We know the truth, we can see the truth and reality, but we fail to acknowledge it. It is up to us to plan and by us I mean us as individuals and us as a society. Yet another disaster will occur, be it nature or man made such as what happened in West, Texas and we will blame everything but what we know to be the truth. We failed.

I first thought about this when Katrina struck New Orleans and was listening to all the chatter about what should we do to fix New Orleans. I have to brag. I thought of a real dynamic fix, one that lets us enjoy the history and culture of New Orleans, but removes much of the element of human risk. (unfortunately this happened before I started writing this blog so I have no proof.) I heard so many ideas, many like mine, talked about long term solutions, And yet, even with such a horrible disaster, the short term reactive mood became the fix. Many people blame President Bush for the immediate disaster becoming much worse than it should have been. His inaction in leading a federal response was a failure on his part. What happened afterwards though was a failure on our part. We watched on TV a very deteriorating situation and then did nothing to plan ahead. We saw the horror, the lives lost, the city lost, but today the same disaster could happen again in New Orleans or, well lets say, New York.

And when all this happens, we see many solutions. The mayor of Moore knew the answer, we need a better building code, one that addresses the reality we live in. What will be interesting to watch will be; can the building code become a reality that saves lives in the future or will it get bogged down by bureaucracy or special interests trying to limit what they have to do. The answer to this question is a long time coming. Do we wait and learn from this or do we act now.

My answer is to act now. When I first started this blog I said I would try to be positive and offer solutions to the problems I see and discuss. So with the backdrop of some horrible events I propose that we plan ahead and make it our way of life politically. Lets learn to be proactive.

Right now there is a monumental amount of finger pointing about the situation in West, Texas. Who should have known that there was a problem? What bureaucracy was responsible for preventing this disaster? Who should be held accountable? And again, unfortunately, the answer is everyone: the company, the city, the state, etc. We know that when you mix certain chemicals they are volatile. We have laws that are suppose to recognize these situations and certain government agencies are suppose to act. Does it ever happen? West, Texas is the answer.

And again we need answers, we need the right mind set. These situations aren't bad luck, karma, God's plan, etc, they are us failing to use the brain God gave us. We live on a dynamic planet that we can use the resources God gave us to thrive or we can blame everything that isn't at fault to make ourselves feel better. Life on this plant relies on what was given to us, some of it is knowledge and using resources productively and some of it is knowledge and dealing with what we know happens. To create life a dynamic, ever changing planet was created, one that has powerful forces at work. We can ignore all this and continue to bemoan our bad luck or we can learn to work with it, understand it,and adapt.

I suggest we choose to adapt, to think ahead, and understand the resources and use them productively. I know this is possible. We don't have to intrude on anybody's rights to plan ahead. In fact as a conservative I feel it is imperative we act. The more we plan ahead the less we can rely on government, pay less taxes, open up new markets for commerce, and generally enjoy this wonderful planet given to us. You know that old phrase" life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So in that mindset I have some ideas. And with all my ideas I prefer that we use a public private partnership moving to private enterprise to solve the problems. We do not need excessive federal action, the government should be more of a facilitator, driver of obtaining knowledge, and then letting the interested parties do the work. It costs us too much to rely on the federal government to solve our problems. The last fifty years should be the visible example of why over reliance on government does not solve problems. We need a federal government because we are a large dynamic country and one of the responsibilities is to protect rights of individuals, not intrude on them. The government though should not try to be the end all be all. With these basic thoughts in mind, let me suggest a few planning ideas. And since I keep talking that we need a new conservative party, here is a bit of what would be the platform and policy of this new party. Or at least my ideas. This is the start of what we need to do to continue to make the United States the leader throughout the world. And this is at home, goes back to another old saying: best to clean your own house first.

1) Nature exists, lets deal with it. You don't have to believe in global warming to realize we have hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. And if you read my posts regularly you know I am a huge proponent of a diversified energy policy, but global warming is not the driving reason for dealing with nature. We have had nature since the planet was created. We know what nature can do. We just saw it in Oklahoma. So in areas where there is regular events such as tornado alley and the Gulf of Mexico, lets plan our cities around protecting people and still keep them thriving.

First example will be New Orleans. And this is a dynamic project.

Okay its late and I have to work tomorrow, well looking at the time, today.

so to be continued.........

And for all the sports fans out there, Go Pacers on Monday night. Its not that I am against any of the Miami players personally, but when the big three got together and had that over the top press conference I have been an avid fan of anyone, but Miami. Luckily my Mavericks did me a favor. Now I am hoping that Indiana can step up. When Miami put that much talent together, they should have been humble and self confident, not over the top and flamboyant. I am a real big believer in respect of human dignity and they just blew that concept out the window that day. If you say God gave you all that talent then listen to what God says about being humble. It is good to be self confident, it is not good to be egotistical. A self confident person understands what he can do and does it quietly. The accolades come when the job is done.


A nice quiet cool evening on a June night in Texas.