Swickard column: It's not if, it's when

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   Watching the Hurricane Harvey disaster in Texas causes me to wonder why it came as such a surprise. Yes, it was stronger than had hit for many years. And the way it hit caused feet of water instead of just inches.

            Still, that is hurricane alley and there are many examples of hurricanes devastating the area with storm surge water or just buckets and buckets of rain. What I really wonder is why many people didn’t have any disaster supplies set aside.

            Supplies such as food, water and batteries are easy to store in case of a hurricane. And again, they are in hurricane alley.

            I’m not talking about should they leave or not from where they live. That is their minute by minute decision based on how the storm is tracking and how much risk they care to take. But that is not my central concern.

            Rather, my concern is that so many people “flooded” the stores ahead of the storm trying to get food and water with which to ride out the storm in their own houses. Why were they just then trying to get supplies?

            They know they are in a hurricane zone. Yet hours before the landfall of the big storm people were just then starting to go to stores looking for water and food. Why were they not prepared already?

            Many hurricanes have pounded their area in the past. Example: A Category 4 hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900 causing perhaps ten thousand deaths. Back then there were no systems in place to warn the residents.

            Today we have nonstop weather reports that warn of approaching storms. Yes, sometimes they are wrong but if people prepare with food and water along with batteries for radios and flashlights, they are not out that much money. Why not already be prepared?

            But the same could be said for any place in our country. A disaster will happen wherever you are in some form like in New Mexico during a very cold spell in February 2011. There was no electricity for days. Some people had a very hard time because they had not prepared.

            Unfortunately, the answer often is that some people never prepare. They assume the electricity will always work.

            Likewise, the same is true for people traveling in remote areas of our state who do not bring water, food and blankets. Cars will break down. Sometimes there is no cell service. Sad to say at that point there is going to be some suffering people.

            We must prepare in case of disaster. How? We need to have at least a week of food, water and supplies for ourselves and family plus what we will give to neighbors who didn’t prepare.

            Why would we give to our neighbors? Well, for one thing the lights will come back on so you don’t want to deny your neighbors who will remember your wonderful charity or how they were treated poorly.

            Again, you have been warned to prepare. 

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard column: It's not if, it's when

Swickard: Looking at our imperfect historical leaders

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   History is the driver of culture. It’s the story of people and how they dealt with adversity. Recently Confederate statues have been under attack which brings the issue of our history.

            Our country is talking not only Civil War but the entire history of our nation. We search for our “Authentic” history, not the propaganda of the winners. But the winners write the history.

            Statues are a measure but they only reflect the feelings of a time but not for all time and all people. In our search for our heroes we are struck by the fact that everyone in the past was imperfect. Some were more imperfect than others but all had blemishes.

            Yet over the years this country has been a beacon to the rest of the world when it comes to liberty. Our country was instrumental in many other countries becoming free of dictators. That is our primary legacy.

            But what of our heroes? We have memorials and currency and a written history about imperfect men. And we now see their blemishes. Example: George Washington perhaps was the only man who could take the Continental Army to victory. Hence, we have our freedom. But he had slaves as did Thomas Jefferson.

            When those slave holders and others who tolerated slavery set forth this nation, they started with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

            But not all humans were equal then. Women and Blacks were not equal. In the war to end slavery President Abraham Lincoln said, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

            Over the last century and a half liberty has come to Americans. It wasn’t easy but it was done. Now there are political factions trying to derive power from injustice then and now. The history of our country is under attack.

            Rather than taking down statues and screaming about justice perhaps we need to really understand our history with the blemishes. We cannot find any leaders without blemishes then or now. But we can see that Americans are free and they inspire freedom in other countries.

            Our country has brought liberty directly and indirectly to most of the world. No, there is still slavery and injustice over much of the world but people all over the world know that liberty is possible because we broke away from England in 1776.

            Dennis Prager said several years ago, “Our danger now is that we are not teaching our children what it means to be an American.” I believe it is the core of this problem of American identity also.

            We must resolve that the dead in our wars of freedom must not have died in vain. As Lincoln said: “…that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Only if we focus on our history will that happen.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Looking at our imperfect historical leaders

Swickard: War unseen on the horizon

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “There never was a war more easy to stop (which wasn’t) than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle.” Winston Churchill about World War Two

            It is good that our world has not been in global military conflict since 1945. There have been some very nasty regional conflicts, but it has been seventy-two years since the entire world was at war.

            Unfortunately, in that time three generations of American leaders have emerged not steeped in the horrors of WWII. That puts all Americans in danger now. We are seeing saber rattling and belligerent talk out of today’s world leaders.

            These hot hasty words may push our world into a global conflict. Worse, there is an amnesia in our country as to the results of any real military conflict.

            I was speaking to a couple young men. The potential for global conflict came up and they didn’t seem concerned. I said, “You realize that you young men will fight the next war.”

            “No,” one countered, “I don’t want to be in the military.” The other one also didn’t fancy serving in the military. “But you signed up for the military,” I stated.

            “Did not,” they both said. “You signed up for selective service when you turned eighteen.” They were confused. “But we had to so that we could get student loans.”

            “Yes,” I agreed. “But you signed up with selective service so you can be drafted into the military if our country needs you to fight a war.” That got their attention. Neither of them believed me but I could see they were thinking about this and would get to the truth shortly.

            Prior to the first and second world wars, America had a small professional military. That was exhausted in a few months and then came the push for civilians. In WWII about sixteen million Americans served in the military. Most were civilian volunteers and draftees.

            What to do about this possible war unseen on the horizon: Ronald Reagan said, “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U. S. was too strong.”

            For our country to stay out of war requires three interconnected actions: first, our country needs a very robust well-trained professional military. Second, we need political and military leaders who can make tough decisions. Finally, a firm strategy for winning conflicts.

            More so, we need to know at what point do we wave our flags, our bands play and we come home. We experienced the lack of this in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

            It is what our country had in WWII and what it has lacked ever since, with the exception of the Persian Gulf War. America must have a firm grasp of the end in mind when it gets into shooting conflicts.

            If history is any guide, a larger rule is to take the politics out of military action. Hard to do but never use a political solution for a military problem. Never.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: War unseen on the horizon

Swickard: Contradicting ourselves many times over

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself...” Walt Whitman

             We are living in times of contradiction and most people ignore these contradictions. Example: a major push is on to deal with head injuries in sports while television programs feature the biggest hits.

            Years ago, I went to Dallas to visit friends. They decided I should see the famous Book Depository from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Kennedy November 1963. There is a tourist attraction where once an assassin perched.

            The level of security surprised me. Armed guards were everywhere. The money taker sat behind bullet-proof glass. We were herded through metal detectors while protectors watched.

            Maybe I got there at the wrong time but it looked like a crowd of Mom and Pop tourists to me. Then we took the elevator which only went to the sixth floor. Much of the exhibit was the story of the assassination of President Kennedy from the assassin’s point of view.

            It answered questions of how Oswald brought the gun up to the window where he fired. The older tourists were somber. I suspect the younger visitors didn’t have the personal emotional attachment to that time.

            I wasn’t the only person who was peeved at the people who stood in the southeast corner and looked from the assassin’s perspective down to the street below mentally sighting the rifle. It was when they said loudly, “BANG,” that I began to think the exhibit was ill-conceived.

            On our way back to my host’s house we stopped by the Irving Mall. I don’t know exactly what happened, but apparently just minutes before we arrived a gang fight broke out next to the food court.

            Some unlucky guy was just sitting down to a piece of pizza with his wife and two small children when he was killed by a stray shot. We walked in just after the smoke cleared. The security guards stood in groups looking like a bunch of chickens in a barnyard right after the farmer has culled out a couple for Sunday lunch.

            There were some people who lamented that there were not more armed security guards when the shooting occurred. With more people shooting the perpetrator might have been caught. But the armed guards were all back at the Dallas Book Depository.

            Since I paid my way into the Book Depository Memorial on the sixth floor I have the right to say that it should be razed like was done with the Cleveland apartment building when a man used it in the course of a cannibalistic crime spree.

            We Americans are contradictory. We celebrate a fallen president from where the assassin sat. The assassin should not be the attraction. And even better, it would be nice if they were able to change the local shooting gallery back into a shopping mall.

            And for heaven’s sake, don’t get me started on the lunacy of celebrating the outlaw Billy the Kid while completely forgetting New Mexico’s own Sheriff Pat Garret.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Contradicting ourselves many times over