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Show THE ZEPHYR AUGUST 1994 In the same area would probably have failed, too. This was a 50 or 100 year flood, after all Of course people get complacent, even when they live within a flood plain. And you can bet that those private levies would certainly have been rebuilt bigger and better and would have been painstakingly maintained for the foreseeable future. People can leam and do better if they're allowed the freedom to act. But no doubt the government will now take over the broken levies so Out everyone will be safer during the next flood. What leaves me speechless (That'll be the day ...Ed.) is the experience we Americans seem to fail to leam from the lessons of government control. Does anyone still actually believe that PAGE 35 t governmental agency control means that anything better will happen? Not too long ago in Moab a trailer burned down. The folks lost just about everything they owned. The accident was apparently caused by the wood stove, left unattended, which caught nearby draperies on fire. Immediately, I wondered what officials would do. Ban wood stoves outright because you need to be fairly knowledgeable about them and we just can't take the risk of another accident? Make people take a Wood Stove Safety Course before they can own one? Require a "wood stove license?" Nothing will surprise me. And you can be sure that some city or county official has it on their "to do" list. What do I think, if anything, should happen after such an accident? Well, It goes without saying these folks learned a lesson the hard way and I wouldn't blame them if they switched to some other form of heat. Hopefully, their friends and neighbors took a minute to rethink the safety of their own heating system. It's a fact this kind of accident, when publicized correctly, often prevents many future accidents as people are reminded once again of the hazards of ordinary life. There are many more examples of Risk Aversion Syndrome (RAS) and die resultant growth of regulations. Things like Hunter Safety courses. They came into being because somebody decided that no hunters could be trusted to handle guns safely. People continue to be stupid about guns and other weapons, as they always have and always will be under certain circumstances. RAS inflicted people now are pushing plans to take away guns from everybody but the criminals and the oops. Wouldn't want to be bothered to leam how to handle a gun properly. Don't have time to take responsibility for teaching our children about them ourselves. Just let a kid get killed or injured with a gun and everybody loses their minds. You'll find fences on diff edges at popular scenic areas in the Canyonlands. Now these are not diffs that are difficult to spot The presence of these fences means someone thinks you may not notice that there's a great big drop off there. It's as if we don't expect parents to hold onto their young children as they near die edge. The safeguards are put in place so we don't have to think about acting safely ourselves. How comforting. MULLING . IT ALL OVER What ever happened to people making their own decisions, and then having to live with the consequences, which may indude harm not only to themselves but to others? I was raised with this belief as a kind of unwritten law. Does everybody now agree that it should be tossed out as a bad idea? And that you leam by experience. It's pretty well documented as an evolutionary process. Plants do it Animals do it It's just common Bense, isn't it? Being alert to danger used to be a necessary trait to stay alive. When was the last time you were alert to danger? Or isn't it politically correct nowadays? For myself, I'm alert many times during each day. Every time I drive on the highway, I try not to talk if someone's in the car with me. I'm driving defensively, watching for die accident that's waiting to happen, so I can avoid it I'm alert every time we operate equipment, or fell deadwood, or build a campfire. I'm very attuned to smells, like burning rubber when around machinery, or smoke when anywhere, or propane when in the house. Any strange noise captures my attention, especially sounds that resemble the warning of a rattlesnake. That's why I can't stand the bedlam of living in town. It's a dulling sensory deluge. If danger threatened, how would you know? Oh, I forgot. The government is watching out for our safety in town and will take care of everything. People sure are different What they'll settle for is different, also. JUST LIVING IN THE PAST If you take away a person's need to be alert, his awareness of looking after himself, he becomes about as safe as a well-bre- d Hereford cow. Have you looked into the eyes of a mature cow lately? Nobody's home. There's something strangely familiar about that empty stare. Take decision-makin- g freedom from a society. Do it gradually, just in certain areas. And gradually, foe people will become less and less able to handle other freedoms, so that in other areas...and foe government can continue to gradually take away decision-makin- g on. regulation goes Fewer and fewer of us seem to be able to accept that we'll never be totally safe anywhere on this earth. And that life can still be good and worth living despite this awareness. Taking risks when you know foe danger, and have weighed the probabilities of success against failure, and have decided to take the chance on your own abilities that's been the strength of the American people. And that strength has suddenly become hard to find In its place is pettiness, and conformity, and a short attention span. 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