Friday Morning Quarterbacking

"There is never a contingency plan for something like this," said Johnny B. Bradberry, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Bull. This is reminiscent of Condoleeza Rice declaring "Who would have imagined someone flying planes into buildings?"
Tom Clancy, for one.

That the city of New Orleans had no contingency plan for the failure of the levees is incomprehensible. And the lack of foresight that a highly likely scenario for a breach would be a major hurricane borders on criminal.

Somebody knows where the high ground is. Somebody knows that, if the city floods there will be no electricity. Somebody knows that, in the event of a major hurricane, communications will be wiped out. Somebody understands the economic impact of the destruction of the Port of New Orleans.

It is the responsibility of our government agencies to plan for the "what if" scenarios that nobody wants to consider. It is the responsibility of our government agencies to, occasionally, gather all of these somebody’s in a room and decide who will be in control and how will the agencies respond. How will you tell people to move to high ground? How will you divide resources between life saving and life protecting activities? Who will you get out first, second, last, and how? Who is in charge?

Once again, we see our government paralyzed, getting their information on CNN, telling us what they're going to do and spending an inordinate amount of time telling us why they can't respond more effectively. Once again, we see blame shifting and behind-covering almost immediately on the part of our elected officials. And once again, we see desperate Americans pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, showing acts of incredible valor and mercy in the face of unspeakable hardships.

I never thought I would witness conditions on our shores that are all too commonplace elsewhere around the globe, and the fact that it is being beamed around the globe, the desperation, the squalor, the tragedy, violence and death is sobering for all who live here and look to us as that shining city on a hill. Yes, it is easy to point fingers after the fact. But finger pointing needs to be done.

There is a tacit agreement between the government and the governed that the government will protect us. There is a tacit agreement between the government and the governed that regulations are not formulated merely for the economic benefit of the few, but also with foresight of the many (As an example of how this works, have you ever noticed the 2 mile long straight portions of the interstate highway system? Those, my friends are called runways...air transport contingency plans.). And there is a tacit agreement between the government and the governed that there are plans in place to deal with the worst case.

It is ironic that, in a place where the breadbasket of the world sends food to starving children around the world, children are dying because our government agencies can't figure out how to move food and water a few blocks.

There was no plan in place to react when a major hurricane hit one of the nation's busiest ports. And because of this people are dying, our friends are watching in horror, our enemies are rejoicing and we, as Americans, are wondering how this can be happening in the most powerful nation on earth.

In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle...do you understand the worst case scenario? Does your government have a plan?

2 September, 2005

Nabob alert!

It's springtime and the nattering nabobs of negativism are back!  This week they appear in the form of Roger Hohman in his diatribe in the April 23 Grafton News.

In his letter, Mr. Hohman illustrates the Nixonian philosophy, believing that since you are too stupid to vote for something, you must be told to vote against something.  He cites numerous failures of Roger Demers, questioning his contribution, motivation, and integrity.  He justifies this negative attack with his preface alleging Mr. Demers'  "dirty tricks" during the special election last year, lost by Mr. Hohman.  In six and one half column inches, he never gives a reason to vote for Mr. Adams, just multiple reasons for throwing Mr. Demers out of office.

Sounds like sour grapes to us.

This is the calling card of the nabob, lots of reasons against something, but scarce commentary for an alternative.  Nabobs are expert at pointing out problems with the status quo, but are absent when the hard choices need to be made.  We at gc.com wish Mr. Hohman could add his considerable energies and intellect to enrich the debate and set a positive course for the future, but instead are offended by this affront to our intellect.

Frankly, we will not make a recommendation regarding the Selectman's contest between Peter Adams and Roger Demers.  They are both dedicated, loyal citizens who have served this town well for many years.  They will both serve the town well for many years to come.

Our suggestion? Give Peter and Roger a call, buy them a cup of coffee, ask them about an issue or two that you think important, then vote for the person with whom you will be most comfortable.

Democracy isn't rocket science, it's just good sense.

28 April, 2003

An opportunity for reclamation

Have you driven down Waterville Street lately?  There is activity at the old gun mill next to the dam.  Our spies tell us that a young family is in the process of trying to convert the structure into their residence.

That property has been vacant and crumbling for as long as we can remember, and  in gc.com's humble opinion, it has been a greater eyesore than the Ekblaw property.  Any attempt to restore it is a welcome addition to our community, and the principals in this endeavor are to be congratulated.

Our understanding is that the appropriate boards in town are concerned about the possible deterioration of the dam, and we appreciate their concern for those properties, flora and fauna that are downstream.  But we must ask the question; Will the property be better cared for with a family living there, or as it sits now, slowly crumbling away?

We think the answer is obvious, and hope that the town works with the owners to make their dream home become reality.

An affront to thinking people everywhere

There are times that we cannot allow words and actions to go unmentioned, for reasons good or bad.  This week we offer considered condemnation to the About Town column in the Grafton News.  In that column, Kay Whynot laments the condition of the traffic "dummies" in Grafton Center.  In his words:

"I would think that a more aesthetic type of signal could be designed for our great common.  Even a cell tower would look better than these abortions." (gc.com emphasis).

Ms./Mrs./Mr. Whynot and the Grafton News owe the community an apology for this insensitive distortion of the language.  In contemporary culture, abortion has only one accepted connotation and, depending upon your view, it is expressed as the murder of the unborn or the termination of a pregnancy.  In either case, it is a devastating, life altering event, fraught with controversy, emotion and fear. 

While we understand poetic and artistic license, we fail to see how a couple of ill-repaired traffic signals can be evocative of words such as aborting, feticide, miscarriage, premature delivery, termination, aborticide, dilation and evacuation.  And while the use of the term is technically correct, it is extremely insensitive, at best. 

Ours is a rich and expressive language, comprised of countless terms and phrases that can convey the most subtle and powerful emotions with clarity and style.  To purposely use such a term forces us to assume that the intent of the author is to offend a portion of his audience.

So why should we care?  If our interest in our local media is to raise the level of discourse throughout the community we should care.  If our interest is casual amusement, let it pass.

We think you should care, and ask that you email the Grafton News with your concerns.

Towers, towers everywhere!

Have you seen that Giant Sequoia trees are sprouting up along I495 and the Massachusetts Turnpike?  Did you notice the new towers by Home Depot and at routes 20 and 140 in Shrewsbury?  Have you seen the massive, new flagpoles in Northboro and Auburn?

These, my friends, are the enablers of our increasingly mobile, always accessible lifestyles.  These, my friends, are the dreaded cell towers, littering the landscape like oak leaves in November....they're everywhere.

Now, we happen to have two cell phones here at gc.com and, truth be told, we do find them quite useful.  At the store, we can make sure we get everything we need, saving gas.  In the car, we can call for assistance, keeping the highways safe.  At sporting events, we can call for medical assistance if one of our kids is hurt, saving precious minutes when those minutes are needed.  The utility, and yes, necessity of these new mobile communication devices is unquestioned.

But when is enough, enough?  Where is cell service lousy in Grafton?

For the past few years, we have been assaulted by proposals, backed by Federal legislation, for the placement of 100-150 foot towers in the most scenic areas of town.  These proposals, brought by Nextel, Verizon, Cingular, or the mobile vendor du jour, all have the same characteristics.  They claim that their customers are clamoring for continued service improvements, and that the only way to accommodate those improvements is with a single, massive tower.

Reality, we think, looks a bit differently.  We have yet to encounter anyone who told us: "Boy, I've been trying to get (insert vendor here) to improve cell service in Grafton.  I can't call my hairdresser when I'm fishing in the Bummets."  We know of no area in town underserved by cell service. 

And lets assume that we suddenly found that we, indeed, needed to be able to place calls from every square inch of land in Grafton.  The question then becomes: "What is the best way to provide that service that provides a profit opportunity to the cellular carrier, and respects the character of the town?"

The answer to that question is NOT single, massive towers on our most picturesque pieces of land.  The answer IS an array of short towers, concealed when possible, scattered throughout town. 

The reality is that the cell companies' proposals are motivated by profit optimization...big towers hold more antennas.  More antennas generate more rent.  As keepers of the town, we have little interest in profit optimization. 

Here at gc.com, we grudgingly support  tower development that does not require antenna rental for financial viability.  If a structure is not financially viable based upon single carrier usage, we should not support its construction.

November 25, 2002

No lines, no hassles, no flights! Worcester Airport in the 21st century

A few years back Worcesterites exhibited their inherent inferiority when Massport took over the operation of Worcester Airport.  With Massport's clout, it was reasoned, airlines would be forced to lower fares at Worcester.  Massport would force flights to Worcester with enticing deals.  Worcester airport would, again, be a convenient place from which to fly.

Wrong!

Today there are fewer flights (are there any commercial flights left?  We forget).  Fares, last we checked, were a joke.  And the only convenience one can attach to the place is that it's the nearest point from which to see the Pru center.

Yet Providence, Manchester and Hartford airports are thriving.  With foresight, they anticipated the traffic nightmare that is the Big Dig and have capitalized on the aversion for Logan. 

But what about Worcester?  Worcester is the second (well, maybe third) largest city in New England.  Draw a circle with a fifty mile radius around Worcester and you will include Boston, Providence, Hartford, Nashua and Springfield.  This represents one of the most densely populated areas in the nation, the northern edge of the megalopolis that extends from Manchester to Richmond.  With that many people nearby, it's a perfect place for a radio station, ski resort, or airport!

So why is Worcester airport failing? 

Worcester airport is failing for the same reason that the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets, or the Worcester Common Outlets, or whatever it is called this week, is failing: You can't get there from anywhere!

Consider that the major draw for Worcester airport lies in the northeast quadrant, an area north of the Massachusetts turnpike, west of 495 and south of Route 2.  To attract people from this area to Worcester, you need to save their time.  Time, you see, is people fly in the first place (it certainly is not the food).   However, it is faster to go to Manchester or Logan unless you live in a town that borders Worcester.  Why? Because we haven't bothered to build a road that connects this area to the airport.

The last major proposal we heard of was a western route into the airport.  That is a great idea if you're trying to attract people as they escape from Holden.  But, no matter how good Dianne Williamson is, we are unaware of any mass exodus that she has caused from that charming little town.  Simply stated, the western route is a joke.

So, what to do?  Simple:

1. Decide if you want an airport there
2. If yes, build an access road from 495, or say, 290 in Shrewsbury.
3. If no, well, we don't no what to do with the place.  It's got plenty of parking, but nobody knows how to get there.

A casino maybe?

OK, We're for Mitt

Our earlier editorial (see below) was based upon utter frustration in our inability to discern what the major party candidates stood for.  While we still believe that the third, fourth and fifth party candidates need to be heard and encouraged, the fact is that a great deal of this nations political stability arises from a two party system, where the political debate is reduced to a comparison of two ideas and voted up or down accordingly.

In that spirit, we believe that the Republican party candidate, Mitt Romney represents our best hope for leadership.  Why?

1. This nation is strong because of a two party system
   The Republican party in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is in shambles.  It needs a standard bearer to bring it to a state where it can be a credible force in government
2. A single party government in Massachusetts spells financial disaster
   Michael Dukakis
3. The government is broken
   We are not so naive to believe that a single office holder can fix all of this, but we know that Mitt Romney has, on at least one occasion, walked into a disaster and fixed it.  Maybe lightning can strike twice.  We are not so naive to believe that Shannon O'Brien thinks there is a problem on beacon hill that needs fixing.
4. We need a communicator
   Mitt Romney had the decency to actually respond to Mr. Russert's questions in the debate last evening.  Shannon O'Brien showed the disdain for the intellect of the electorate that infuriates us here at gc.com.  If she won't answer simple questions on this stage, what makes anyone think that she will be straight with the voters if she achieves office?

Face it, Carla Howell, Barbara Johnson and Jill Stein will not win.  Vote for immediate change, vote for Mitt Romney.

What's up with the Governor's race?

Well, Thursday night's debate was certainly enlightening.  Carla Howell is going to create Nirvana by eliminating the income tax, she's just a little vague on how we get from here to there.  We can't really figure out what Barbara Johnson wants to do on the hill, but if you go to her web site, BJ for Governor (no, we aren't making this up), I'm sure you will get some idea.  We actually like Jill Stein.  The problem is that nobody in the State House can understand words longer than two syllables, nor compound sentences, so she'll have a hard time communicating her program for change.

That brings us to the main event, Mitt and Shannon.  "She's a crook and I saved the Olympics" says he.  "He's a corporate raider who will throw your grandmother into the street" says she. We have yet to hear either utter a word regarding the Commonwealth's financial future, with a frank assessment of where we are and an action plan for where we are going.  An open discussion of plans to deal with the continuing circus that is the turnpike authority is absent.  This single issue, because of the big dig, has the potential of becoming our very own Seabrook style disaster, and they are mute on the subject. 

What continues to amaze us here at gc.com is the utter disdain in which we are held by those seeking, and occupying political office. The candidates hold the Nixonian philosophy that voters always vote against someone or something, not for. They assume that if they scream loud enough "This bozo will ruin your life!", we will be satisfied with the debate.  Of course, if  you spend all your time saying the other guy is a nitwit, then you don't have to bother actually advancing an innovative idea to actually get something done.

So, what to do?  We like the long view that Carla Howell is taking, and ask you to take the long view regarding party representation.  The Republicans and Democrats are broken.  They have no interest in you nor us, and they need to be shaken to the core. 

Thomas Jefferson advanced the notion that a little revolution is good now and then.  We agree, and since we can't storm the State House with tanks, we can do the next best thing.  Vote an alternative party.  These people need to know that we don't like what's going on.

October 25

Shame on you American-hating liberals

Reprinted without permission from the London Daily Mirror
Tony Parsons

ONE year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting - the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.

An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.

Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.

But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance.

Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.

There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country - too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic.

And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.

America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood.

A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon?

And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries - were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them?

What touched the heart about those who died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands and wives, and children, some unborn.

And these people brought it on themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?

These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan.

The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.

The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.

Remember, remember.

Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers.

Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum.

Remember, remember - and realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have.

So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray?

Pass the Kleenex.

So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.

AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength.

American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?

When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism". A real war.

The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell", if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe.

The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth.

The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.

But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.

I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic.

Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that.

Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.

Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper.

And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department. To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein.

Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange center, oh mighty one!

Remember, remember, September 11.

One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America.

No, do more than remember. Never forget!

September 11, 2002

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