Stinkin' Logic. Who Needs It?

Strange day yesterday as the remnants of Hurricane Laura rolled through the state. Our electricity was off for only a few minutes, but TV reception was sporadic. Outdoors it was nasty. I cuddled with the latest edition of The Politics of The Administrative Process by Donald Kettl. In the preface, he warns us. From the Flint water crisis to the BP oil spill to Hurricane Katrina, thoughtful people know that “Black Swans” are not only possible, but inevitable. (See: Covid-19.)

Thoughtful people think about those things.

Thoughtful people know we need to elect thoughtful, caring leaders who support thoughtful, accomplished public administrators. But we don’t. We elect people who think government is a joke at best and a mechanism for revenge at worst and who appoint cronies—who despise Americans who aren't like them—to run our agencies. “Why?” I was asking myself that when the TV returned with a newscaster energetically reporting on the “tropical storm.”

I assumed she needed at least a high-school education to be a weather reporter. But she warned us that, after an inch of rain, (despite a month-long dry spell) the ground was now “saturated” to the failing tree roots and we should seek cover. Then she breathlessly reported that her camera-person, who was from Little Rock, had just told her that the Arkansas river normally flowed toward the sea but that “the winds were now forcing it to flow in the opposite direction.” Yes, that Arkansas River. Look out Oklahoma.

The clouds outside remained, but the ones in my head rolled away. Things became clear. If we don’t start thinking, we’re gonna keep sinking.