And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... on this day on which Memorial Day is observed, even though it isn’t the “real” Memorial Day (that’s May 30) I am thinking about weather.

If forecasts came true, the first few days of June were about 20 degrees cooler than the last few days of May.

This morning, May 28, as Iowa forecasts predicted another high in the upper 90 degree range, I was watching reporters for the weather channel along Florida’s gulf cost wearing North Face parkas in middle 70s temperatures!

And I was thinking about weather yesterday (May 27) afternoon when my home was involved in a power outage, which lasted a couple hours.

When the utility, in response to my contact, said it could take that long to have power restored, I figured I was in serious trouble.

Two hours on one of the warmest days on record with no air conditioner. Not even juice for fans. No electric range. No television.

Goodbye, cruel world.

But I survived. I found a window to open which allowed a slight breeze. And I stayed inactive with a book.

And I mused about how our ancestors, grandparents in my case, survived without any of those electrical appliances.

And I also pondered the effect on the nation if somehow an enemy state could successfully destroy this nation’s power grid. How long would it take to get power restored?

And are we sufficiently worried about that?

Russia would certainly be one nation which could try, and possibly China. But I personally doubt either has the will to attempt such a thing. “Rogue” nations such as Iran or North Korea seem more likely, if they have the ability, which is doubtful.

Maybe a nation which really isn’t a nation, the Nation of Islam, or radical Muslims, could be a threat with imbedded operatives.

Recent articles in daily papers refer back to when President Harding, in the WWI era, banned the use of the German language for fear of cooperators with ancestral ties to Germany could pose a threat. President Roosevelt took action against Japanese speakers early in WWII.

For the most part, those who spoke German or Japanese were loyal residents, even if not citizens, of the United States.

But I never heard my parents, adults in WWII, nor my grandparents, adults in WWI, and some with German ancestry, complain about what was billed as a precautionary measure.

But in retrospect after those wars, agreed it wasn’t necessary, and seemed unreasonably discriminatory.