WE SEE SO LITTLE Ours is a large nation.
It is big in many ways. So much so that, at times, it tends to minimize any terms used to try to define it's dimensions.
Many were reminded of the size of the nation when watching the two hurricanes which have, this far elected to visit our gulf coast states. As hurricanes go, they were classified as being “large” and when a map either of them was applied as an overlay, it covered the area completely and fudged a bit into the edge off edge of the Caribbean Sea. If, in your own mind you slid it all up and you swamped the entire Republic of Texas - now called a “state”- one among many united
Many foreign residents never think of a nation of such extended dimensions They think, in many cases, of driving of a hour or two and visit several nations. It is said one cannot drive more than seventy-two miles in any one direction from the center of England without ending up in the sea. In the City of New Orleans more land was under water than most people realize. They quote it as being “80% or 90%” but never say “of what?”
Many Americans make the false judgments. There has been, are, and will continue to be, groups of narrow-minded critics by birth who will insist that “authority” in the stricken areas was a either lacking or in the hands of incompetent people who were either stupid, greedy,or motivated by the wrong political and social principles. They tend to mark all whom they accuse as offenders with a wide brush of their own dipping. In the past the best way to deal with this troublesome rash has been simply to expose them to the sunshine of honest, open publicity. They tend to crawl back into the wood work to await another opportunity when we may wander away from the dominion we hold over our Good Earth.
A.L.M. September 24, 2005 [c351wds]
