OPINION & EDITORIAL
Prevent, don’t scapegoat
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Also by Rob Welygan:
- An "enlightened" view on homosexual marriage (November 24, 2003)
- Working toward a fair and equal society (October 21, 2003)
- An unlikely award-winner (November 3, 2003)
- Prevent, don't scapegoat (September 9, 2003)
- MCSC diversity education services needed for all students (September 22, 2003)
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by Rob Welygan
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
When you spend all of your summer in Madison, everything else in the world can seem fairly removed. At least, that’s the sensation I received watching news images of the East Coast blackouts while sitting in my air-conditioned house. Heck, it didn’t even hold my attention long enough to keep me from flipping over to Fox, where a timely episode of “The Simpsons” showcased a wacky blackout occurring in Springfield.
Regardless of my own ignorance, the fact remains that the blackouts demonstrated a serious flaw in our seemingly perfect American infrastructure. I am not referring to the alleged mistakes made by various power providers in the Midwest that supposedly accounted for the blackouts. I know absolutely nothing about large-scale electrical management, and I am definitely the last person in the world who should be addressing power grids. No, what I’m tackling is the preoccupation with blame that seems to have our country in such a tight grip, especially in the aftermath of a problem.
A few days into kindergarten, lots of people quickly learn the value of scapegoating. There’s a ball lost on the roof of the school? It must be the other kid’s fault. Power lost in New York? It must be those distant power providers out in the boonies of Ohio. Or maybe those untrustworthy Canadians, with their trouble-inducing free health care. Or maybe the outages are the fault of President Bush’s tax cuts (thank you for that one, Sen. Bob Graham).
Despite no solid evidence whatsoever, most politicians and pundits began assigning blame immediately to advance whatever cause or position they have.
I’m sure no one who experienced the blackouts is eager to do so again (except maybe the New York City looters, but are we really concerned with their interests?). I’m not suggesting that steps shouldn’t be taken to remedy and prevent what happened. However, there are countless issues out there with far greater potential for disaster that we should look at.
What would happen if we could no longer get oil from the Middle East? What if the higher levels of poisonous arsenic released into our drinking water actually turn out to have negative health consequences? What if Pakistan and India nuke each other, leading to the deaths of millions of people and a worldwide ecological disaster?
Sure, these situations are only possibilities. Do these catastrophes not occur because our country has good luck, or is it because people are actually working and taking an active role in keeping things from spiraling out of control? Call me crazy, but how bad would it be to see the government take more of a proactive approach, putting more effort into preventing disasters from occurring — disasters such as Saddam Hussein unleashing his massive and obvious arsenal of weapons of mass destruction on an unsuspecting world (wait, wait … bad example)?
Issues of prevention are not “sexy” or “glamorous.” Politicians and bureaucrats are only human and have limited resources to deal with a vast array of problems. The nature of our political system forces them to be concerned with their own survival and to tackle the issues that most of the population show concern over.
When an event as widespread as the blackouts occurs, any politician with half a brain will try to capitalize, attempting to make connections with those forced to deal with the situation to show how “concerned” they are for the country. No one wants to talk about something as vague and unspecific as prevention. If you’re able to prevent bad things from happening, how can anyone tell that you’re doing anything right?
If we want to see problems addressed before they spiral out of control, then we have to demand it from our leaders and support those who take action to ensure that we enjoy the quality of life that we do now. Otherwise, we’ll be left with a group of kindergarteners pointing at one another and whining over who kicked the ball onto the roof.
Rob Welygan (rswelygan@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in political science and history.
