In January of 2003 we had very little to do one day and sat around thinking how very vulnerable America is to terrorist attacks that would cripple the nation. Out of these musings came an article named “Twelve Terror Cells” that are, hopefully, totally imaginary. In the article, these cells are assigned to take down twelve high profile and economically indispensable parts of our infrastructure, including power grids.
Although we are assured that the northeast blackout of August 14, 2003 had nothing whatever to do with terrorism, we do have no less than seven possible suspects, with the number growing until our leaders find one that will satisfy the public, diffuse any notion of panic and lay the matter to rest. How truthful it is depends on whether or not the story as told to satisfy the public actually pinpoints the real culprit and won’t embarrass any high profile politicians.
The interesting theory that seems to have faded was that the Canadians did it. However, the Canucks didn’t appear to like that theory, and it has since rather evaporated. One journalist, who avowed that he used to work for a living and in the electrical field at that, blamed the whole mess on the dim bulb in the White House. Still other sources have been named, and now, as of this writing, with no guarantees being made that this culprit will remain the prime suspect until the typing is finished, the chief suspect is our fine state of Ohio where the skies are always gray.
Does it seem possible that a quarter of the nation could suddenly lose power and with computers that can measure my rather minimal usage of electricity per month, they cannot locate where a major disruption occurred in a power grid? I’m not saying that the computer is to blame, but why wouldn’t electrical companies have such equipment so that failures, imminent overloads, or other disruptions could be pinpointed precisely, exactly, and even in advance of an event? In fact, I have been assured by my electric company that they indeed do have power management systems, and that is how Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project measure electrical demand and shift loads.
Frankly, we’re all in the dark over this latest massive blackout, and likely to stay that way no matter what explanation the doctors of spin bring out of their spinmeister bowl.
You see, the old “cry wolf” has finally taken hold! We don’t believe the lone gunman story of the Kennedy assassination in November of 1963. We don’t believe a lot of explanations the government gives us. In fact, I don’t believe I have yet read an explanation of why our fighter jets were not scrambled on September 11, 2001 when United and American planes were off course and something was obviously extraordinarily out of order. If so many people had so many cell phones describing what was going on, planes from Andrews and other Air Force bases should have been in the air in five minutes after the first cell phone call. I realize government is horribly inefficient but I refuse to believe that it is that inefficient, idiotic and FUBAR when thousands of lives are at stake.
Nor can I see large power companies and supposed energy experts taking days to figure out where a failure occurred even if their computers DID go out … can’t they afford backup power for their computers? They would when it comes to the billing department. Why not for a national emergency? In fact, no one has yet really solved this mystery which is doubtless a mystery only to the public and not those in power.
Inefficiency in the wake of the 911 “terror attack” was a good excuse to toss at panicked Americans to have them willingly surrender their liberties and allow their Congress to pass the USA PATRIOT act without reading it. Also it served to get Americans, long used to being free people who have to be subdued, to allow fear to remove their senses and let our government create another bureaucratic boondoggle on top of the unsanitary landfill of current government agencies. Yes, Homeland Security is its name. Spin is its game. And the results are the same — when convenient. It’s useless.
Never in the history of this nation have so many Americans been duped so many times in so few months as in the period between September 11, 2001 and the present. They have sold their freedom for an IOU called security, fallen for the “need” for a war whose rationale shifted faster than the eye could follow, and now they call a giant blackout a national emergency and need a team of experts to tell us what should have been available information within minutes considering our costly, hyped up “homeland security” department. They can read the keystrokes on my computer, and can’t locate where a power failure occurred along a stream of high tension wires and distributing stations? What’s that stinking stuff I smell? Oh. No I won’t type it.
The New York/New England blackout that extended to (or came from) Detroit and Cleveland, took a short trip to Toronto and environs and put the nation back to coal oil lamps, flashlights and aromatic candlelight was a huge disruption, a major inconvenience, a tragedy for folks who cannot tolerate high heat and humidity, but it was not a national disaster, it was a widespread power outage. The fact that our nation is this dependent on electricity is one of its major vulnerabilities. Our dependence on transportation for food, medicine and other supplies is another, for we only have so many Interstate Highways. (Sorry, Route 66 won’t do now.)
We are very vulnerable. Our whole livelihood now depends on electricity, truck and rail commerce, a highway system visible to all through any atlas, a few major dams, a few indispensable bridges, and some very large buildings that make excellent targets for suicide bombing practice.
Before we get to the bottom of this three-day crisis, it will be long forgotten due to some other debacle that creates a news-a-thon. That won’t solve the problem of vulnerability, it will just make us forget it until the next crisis arises. One wonders whether some of these aren’t test runs to see where our vulnerabilities are greatest and how the public reacts. What does it take to create enough panic to declare martial law and call out the troops to quell the panic?
Honestly, we haven’t seen a real national emergency yet. My best projections say we will. When? I don’t know, but at that point they might “need” us to surrender our guns and ammunition for the safety of the nation.
After that, we won’t need explanations.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”