Isolated in Texas...

By not going out (except to buy some light bulbs), not having a TV, and not going online except to check mail late in the day yesterday, I was unaware of the strikes against targets in Afghanistan until after I arrived for my shift.

Somehow, I don't feel as if I've particularly missed anything, in terms of coverage. War is not a spectator sport, not for normal people, and particularly not for a generation that has been taught to back away from confrontations and allow Someone Else to Deal With It.

I am reminded of conversations I had a long time ago with newly arrived immigrants from Russia. "Why," they would ask me, "do you Americans have this mania for giving in to criminals?" They were talking about the standard advice given out regarding muggers: don't do anything to aggravate the perp, just give him your wallet and let him go on his way. Better to lose your money than, perhaps, your life.

These immigrants could not fathom this wisdom. In their home turf of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, they resisted the predations of petty hoods. (Eventually, the crooks got tired of mugging people who didn't simply hand over their wallets, and moved on to greener pastures. Go figure.)

Our "mania" extends - or did - to our attitude towards hijackers, too. Someone wants to fly to Cuba? Okay. Sit back. Relax. Fly to Cuba or wherever the hijacker wants to go. It's better to be inconvenienced than to risk getting killed, right?

The motto of the late-20th-century American might be stated as: "Let Someone Else Do Something About It." (Moreover, it applied to way more than muggings and hijackings.)

The reaction of The Powers That Be to the events of September 11 was to turn us even further into a nation of kindergardeners, at least as far as airline safety is concerned. While doing laundry today, I spied a photo in a local paper of a woman awash in a mountain of nail scissors, pocket knives, and other implements of destruction that had been confiscated at the local airports. Obviously, similar mountains of junk had moved through the skies in the pockets of passengers for decades with no ill effects. How does their confiscation now make us safer?

And then my thoughts turned to the passengers of United 93.

They, most certainly, did not wait for Someone In Authority to Do Something. They acted, and in doing so lost their lives, but very likely saved many others. They became dangerous, in the sense of the aphorism repeated to generations of Marine recruits: There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous people.

Perhaps what is needed in the fight against terrorism is a cultivation of the natural dangerousness of our citizenry. Just as John Kennedy urged citizens to improve their flagging physical fitness in the early 60s (anyone remember his exhortations to do a 3-day, 50-mile hike?), perhaps it would behoove President Bush to encourage citizens to master skills that would make them more capable of taking action to defend themselves on an individual, decentralized, autonomous basis.

Such an effort would have to be more serious than the trendy long walk called for in JFK's day. Among other things, this new movement would have to include training to make sure that citizens understand the legal limits of what they may and may not do (e.g., teaching the difference between self-defense and vigilantism).

However, seeing as how individual empowerment is not very high on the government's to-do list, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any encouragement. Perhaps a new Okinawan model will emerge.

In any event, this thought is not complete, having been hatched between comm passes during this morning's shift. It's almost 6 am, and there are just over three hours to go.

Cheers...

On going deaf...

I recall, some time ago, watching some program on television where two women were talking about Justice Clarence Thomas - rather critically, I might add - when one of them wound up matters by saying something to the effect of hoping that Thomas' wife fed him a high-fat diet, so that he might croak sooner.

People of a similar mindset will probably rejoice at the news that Rush Limbaugh has apparently suffered a catastrophic hearing loss recently and is, in effect, working deaf.

Unlike a lot of people who condemn Limbaugh, I've actually listened to several of his shows over the years. Some of what he says makes sense; some doesn't. That's not the point of this post.

You see, a couple of years ago - in December 1999, in fact - I suffered a catastrophic hearing loss in my right ear, and learning of Limbaugh's plight made me recall how I felt at the time, faced with the likely prospect of being deaf in one ear. If you think deafness is a liability for radio personalities, believe me, it's no less disastrous for an interpreter.

At first, I attributed the deafness to an infection. I felt congested. I went to a doctor, who prescribed something that - it turned out - didn't do much for the congestion (because there wasn't any) but did make my heart do things that made the NASA doctor sit up and take notice when I sat down to take my annual flight controller physical. I also failed the hearing test in my right ear (the curve in the low frequencies was about as flat as the Texas plains).

As the congested feeling hadn't gone away, I went to an ear, nose, and throat specialist (aka 'otolaryngologist'), who handed me over to a technician to do another hearing test.

This one was worse, if such a thing could be imagined.

When I was back with the doctor, he let me have it directly: I'd lost the hearing in my ear. It happened to people from time to time. Nobody knows why it happens. It may or may not be reversible. He prescribed a course of prednisone and told me to come back in a month.

A month later, some of the hearing had come back, though not enough for me to interpret, although I worked at it. (I felt a little like a character in an old Twilight Zone episode, the one where the lead player starts to notice that word usage was subtly changing (a person referring to a cup might say it was a "mouse," a car became a "tree"). Soon, the changes were not so subtle, until eventually, he understood nothing of what's going on around him and the episode closes with him sitting on the floor, reading a children's dictionary that is filled with completely familiar words that have acquired completely unfamiliar meanings.)

Fortunately, I did not have to struggle for a long time. The hearing in my right ear continued to improve until today, about the only residue of that experience is that I favor my left ear when I'm in a noisy environment. I was lucky, I guess.

* * *I got a pretty solid 5 hours of sleep this afternoon, after which I "turned to" on the floor, sweeping it and mopping it per my plan. The floor is pretty clean now, so I can turn my attention to table surfaces, which are piled with junk. In this regard, however, I must keep in mind that moderation in all things is the key to success and happiness. :^)

Tonight's shift starts at [ugh!] 2 am and ends at 9:30 am. I just might go in a bit earlier to stave off having to drive around in the middle of the night.

Cheers...