Hobbes hits us with another salacious inside scoop over at the NiagaraTimes blog about the possible corruption at the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. Good work! All we need now is some evidence.
It seems that this is another agency, apparently international in the legal sense, that escapes any legal oversight. They must be accountable to someone. But short of some obscure scholar in international law probably nobody knows. So they can do whatever they want? Sounds like the Power Authority.
But relevant to my previous post today, the Bridge Commission also doesn’t have much concern regarding the vulnerability of the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to terrorist attack. I address the same questions to them, namely, what has been done to protect the bridge. If nothing, why? And if nothing needs to be done WHY? How do we justify doing nothing? Do we cross our fingers, hold our breath and hope? Or just descend into mass denial and hope our vulnerability goes away?
My belief is that the powers-that-be have so little concern and so little respect for the needs and interests of Niagara County that they can get away with ignoring the vulnerability of the bridge not to mention the power plant. The people are asleep. As far as I can tell so far, the NC Legislature is a little comatose in this regard also. When you have no respect for yourself, no one else will either.
When I brought the bridge and power plant security issue up on the Leffler show today, Scott gave me a knee jerk objection to my concern because my interest was stimulated by the Bob Baxter article on homeland security. And Scott accused Baxter of never ever having previously been interested in Homeland Security until he connected it to the Parkway removal issue. So I’m sure according to the purely relativistically minded, I too am guilty by association. That of course is logical nonsense. It’s also insulting that it would be presumed I can’t think for myself. Anybody who knows me would know much better.
Obviously the only reason anyone, especially the small business interests in the Lewiston area, would accuse Baxter of opportunism is that they opportunistically oppose Parkway removal because they believe it will affect local business. How selfish, provincial and narcissistically narrow-minded is that? Not to mention how illogical that is.
Scott and others apparently believe it’s not possible to be objective about the power plant and bridge vulnerability because it ties in with the Parkway removal issue. So does that mean that one should not judge the Homeland Security aspect independently? Does that mean the Lewiston crowd would neglect looking at the security issue objectively because it inadvertently seems to support the NHP position on Parkway removal? How much more illogical and selfish is that on the part of the Lewiston crowd? Who is being more objective here?
Scott’s response to me implies that if we can reduce what someone says and does to some other interests that they have, then anything they say is corrupted by those other interests. If that were the case then the position of the Lewiston crowd is equally corrupted. That furthermore means that no one can be allowed to speak in the interests of the good of the whole Niagara county community. Philosophically that means objectivity is not possible. That’s called “relativism” my friends. It leads to skepticism, then cynicism and then finally violence of some sort. At least it leads to the end of dialogue and democracy. It is a cynism that leads to the impossibility of being able to work together as a community. That’s what leads to corruption, deception and political violence. It’s a form of character assassination.
I guess that’s why so few are interested in the Niagara Communities Comprehensive Plan Project. People around here, to their own detriment, can’t think in terms of belonging and in terms of the good of the whole. Nevertheless the Plan Project continues today at 5PM at the Faculty Cafeteria at Niagara Community College. The topic today is Health and Safety in NC. Very timely. Very appropriate. Hopefully some vision of a common purpose in this county may emerge with respect to Health and Saftey
3 comments:
Good afternoon Larry,
I don't understand the paranoia you have with terrorist attacks. This country and state lost more bridges due to lack of up keep than terrorists. Plus I know this sounds cold but if a bomb went off in Niagara Falls would anyone notice?
Hobbes beef with the Bridge Commission sounds like "he wants a taste too" or "you must let us wet our beaks" kind of godfather payoff. That is why it never came up before now, the envelope must of been a little light.
Good point about the bomb in the Falls but maybe a little cynical,no? Or maybe no one would notice, literally! That's scary.
I don't think it's paranoia though. Why isn't it a legitimate concern given that we are spending $180,000 dollars a year to E&E Consulting for advice on Homeland Security. Why? So they can tell us its not a problem and that we don't have to do anything about it? I can tell the Legislature that too if that's what they want to hear. I'll only charge $150,000a year.
But we also lose over 40,000 people a year to car accidents. Does that mean we shouldn't be concerned about soldiers dying in Iraq, etc.? I'm against the war, from the beginning, if you hadn't noticed already.
I don't know what Hobbes ultimate motives are on his site. It's a good scoop but I hope the story doesn't get ahead of the evidence.
Joe,
I have to retract what I said about E&E. I spoke to Greg Lewis tonight at the Niagara Communities Comprehensive Plan Meeting and asked him about E&E. He told me that they have nothing to do with determining any Homeland Security conditions. If I understood him he said they were some kind of firm that formalizes documents according to governmentally required formats or something like that. So the original information I got was inaccurate and I was a fool to have taken somebodies word for it before checking other sources. Also Lewis said that the protection of the bridge and the power plant is under the jurisdiction of several agencies and not only those within the US. I've only talked to Mr. Lewis a couple times. He's pretty bright but he speaks pretty generally about governmental systems and policy making that is kind of foreign to me. He does really seem to know what he's talking about and insists that he is thoroughly non-partisan. ... My question about the bridge being unprotected remains however until I get more evidence that what Lewis seems to feel is the case really is the case. Lewis thinks that the power plant and bridge are such high priorities that there must be systems in place to protect them. For me the verdict is still out. I'm not quite satisfied yet. Sorry for the misinformation I passed on.
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