THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
SOURCE: By FRANK DeMARCO
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
When your power went out and suddenly you lost your assured, easy access to warmth and light. . . .
When your phones went out. . . .
When your car got stuck and strangers helped get it moving again. . . .
When the roads iced over so badly that you became isolated from stores, schools, workplaces, hospitals and all the other essentials of civilization. .
When all that happened, some currently fashionable political and ideological cliches suddenly were exposed as nonsense. Also exposed was our own casual ingratitude to those who built the civilization we depend on.
The storm provided four valuable reminders.
(1) Conservatives are fond of saying that ``Government isn't the answer, it's the problem.'' But did you think government was the problem when:
you were waiting for government workers to clear streets and roadways local and national;
you depended on them to restore air traffic by clearing runways and maintaining the air-traffic control system;
your life and your family's life might depend on rescue squads or firefighters (city government) or the National Guard (state government), and when grants and loans to help repair some of the damage will depend on declarations of a state of emergency (federal government)?
(2) It has become fashionable to say that ``the government has no business helping individuals who can't help themselves.'' But how about providing shelter for those who suddenly had no warm place to stay? Was this job strictly - or even rightly - one for charities and churches, rather than for government as a representative of the community as a whole? Of course not.
But is one night colder than an entire winter? After how many cold nights does providing shelter cease to be a responsible service for government to provide? At what income level does a citizen cease to matter?
(Sure, these homeless were homeless only temporarily, because of a sudden emergency, and the problem of possible permanent dependency was not involved. But does anyone really think that the problem couldn't be solved if we as a society were determined to do so? Just 20 years ago, we had no homeless problem.)
(3) It is fashionable among liberals to blame big business for just about anything wrong with society. But when the power went out or the phone went dead, did you resent the businesses whose foresight and investment provide you with telephone service and electric power day by day, and whose crews were working, in terribly difficult, dangerous and unpleasant conditions, to restore that access?
(4) People talk about rugged individualism. But when the power goes out, we remember that none of us live here as individuals. Ever tried maintaining a phone system, or a firefighting system, by yourself? Ever figure out how to have houses built, food delivered, roads repaired, books printed all by yourself?
All of society's comforts and essentials are the gift of our ancestors. John Smith and Christopher Newport arrived at a place that had no roads, no stores, no churches, businesses, schools, no hospitals. The Pilgrims faced the same emptiness. They arrived with little besides their English civilization - which, of course, was the gift of previous generations to them - and the willingness to work.
Everything we have is a gift from them and those who followed them. And, of course, everything our grandchildren will have will be a gift from us as well as from those who were here before us.
But without the political and legal structure enacted and constructed bit by bit over uncounted generations, what security could any of us enjoy? Without the network of roads, railroads and airlines we inherited, how much could any of us do? Without the vast libraries, the educational institutions, the cooperative institutions that are America's genius, how much could any of us know?
As a small example, take the common pencil. No one in the world knows all the mining, manufacturing, transportation and sales processes involved in providing society with a pencil, let alone something complicated.
We are part of a network of economic and social ties that bind us together for better or worse, like it or not. We'd do better as a society if we remembered this at times when the power is on. MEMO: Mr. DeMarco is chairman and chief administrative officer of Hampton
Roads Publishing Co. of Charlottesville, and is a former associate
editor of The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB