RE: [Redbadbear] Black Out: Personal Admiration

["Mark Lause" <MLause@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hunter,

As usual, you are putting your finger on an easily overlooked but very
essential point.

I've been through blackouts, ice storms, twisters, hurricanes, and that
great snowstorm that briefly toppled the city machine in Chicago.  As
the power or heat sputters and fails, people are left to their own
devices.  After several hours of casting about waiting for everything to
work the way it used to work, someone goes out and starts unsnarling
traffic because it desperately needs to be done and they know how to do
it.  Someone starts a census of resources--flashlights, candles,
shovels, snowshoes, skis.  Where are the old people?  The sick?  No
ambulance can get through. Getting the basic essentials to everyone
requires cooperation.

In each case that I've seen, people not only rise to the occasion, but
have taught me much about just how reasonable and workable the
assumptions of democracy and socialism are.

Thanks for reminding us of the real story of the blackout.

Best,
Mark L.