Happy 4th of July

MoonHowler

 

Happy 4th.

Somehow as we wish  each other Happy 4th, I somehow feel that the nation has not been this divided since the Civil War.

My friend Bear has suggested that it might be the 24 hour news channels generating the hate and malice.  I think he is on to something.  Each host feels obligated to start up some contention.  No show is a success without some good old fashioned partisan fury hurled at “the other side.”  The blogs and online journals pick up where the hosts leave off and pretty soon, we are all at each other’s throats for yet another day.

I remember times when politics wasn’t this mean, nasty and just plain common.  I wish we could return to a time when people disagreed over ideas rather than personalized elections.

I agree with Bear 100%.  Any other ideas?

 

 

Arlington emergency director calls on area to cancel 4th of July

MoonHowler

Now wait.  We can’t cancel the 4th of July.  What we can do is cancel government and community events.  Wait!  That’s not even patriotic!  Where is this coming from?

Washingtonpost.com:

With 27,000 households without power, 19 roads still blocked, land line phone service erratic and calls to 911 not always getting through, Jack Brown, director of Arlington County’s Office of Emergency Management, has an audacious idea: Consider canceling the Fourth of July.

“I’m questioning having a special event during an emergency,” he said Monday after a weekend of extreme heat, lack of power and most critically, the failure of the emergency 911 call system. “Police are pre-deployed to two or three venues for traffic [during the holiday]. We had to evacuate the Iwo Jima Memorial a couple of times due to pending storms. Our power supply is not up and running at full strength and our emergency communications are not where I’d like.

“I’m really, really concerned about the vulnerability of our community, especially Arlington, but really the whole National Capital region.”

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