A call for unisex soap

A while back My Lady and I stopped at a local drugstore to buy some personal care items. As we were wandering the isles I was startled to find that while the products were all in the same part of the store there were important differences in the store layout as to where various lotions and soaps can be found.

In order for us to find the product we wanted we first had to determine what part of our bodies we wanted to treat and then decide what gender we are. It is not enough to intend to purchase moisturizer or soap; you must determine if you want it for your face, body, or feet, and from there whether it’s soap or a moisturizer for a man’s parts or a woman’s.

So my question is: Is Ivory soap male or female?

Ethics and Economics

The Amateur Radio Club I belong to was busy discussing a recent news item about a Fire Department that had let a house burn to the foundation because the owners had not paid an annual subscription for fire protection. The general consensus was that it was probably illegal and certainly immoral to refuse to put out the fire. While I can agree with the sentiment that standing by and watching a house be consumed in flames reflects poorly on the ethics of the department I certainly needed to research the issues before I reached a personal determination about the actions of the fire department.  For the second time in a year the South Fulton Fire Department in Obion County TN made the news by refusing to put the wet stuff on the red stuff because the homeowner had not paid an annual $75 subscription for their services. While the department’s action is really poor public relations a little research tells more about the issues.

The Town of South Fulton has a fire department that is financed by the taxes of the people living in town. The fire coverage for the town is paid for by the taxes paid by the people who live and work in town. Obion County on the other hand does not provide any fire response and from what I’ve learned refuses to allow the formation of a volunteer department that could provide fire coverage outside the town. So if you live outside South Fulton the Town doesn’t provide any coverage unless you pay an annual $75 subscription. The philosophy is that the townsfolk shouldn’t be expected to provide services free of charge to people who don’t pay to support the fire department.

The two fires that cost county residents to lose their home were the result of these two homeowners hedging their bets. The chose not to pay the annual fee for reasons that made sense to them and they lost their bet. There was some argument that the people [probably couldn’t afford the coverage, but it seems to me that if you can afford to make payments on a house you can probably afford $75 for what is essentially insurance. I’m willing to bet that the residents of the destroyed homes most likely had made more than one purchase of a non essential nature that cost more than the $75 subscription.

The issue for the Town and the Fire Department is that it costs money to staff , equip and operate a fire department and if they put out fires for people who refused to pay for the service in no time at all no one would pay for the service and (I’m sure) the department would go out of business. A few of the people with whom I was discussing the story don’t agree with my thoughts, but then again they are people who have trouble understanding economics and the reality that we are all responsible for the results of our action. The people who lost their homes had a choice and they refused a voluntary contract by choosing to keep their money. The rolled the dice and lost and the community should not have to pay the cost for their short sightedness.

Christmas is upon us

With Christmas fast approaching the time for seasonal decoration of the house is here. My Lady revels in the opportunity to make our home glow with the recurrent story of life and hope. In preparation for the makeover I’ve been listening to Christmas music and this is one piece that I think exemplifies the time of year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45VGDNHJ4Zo

Enjoy and anticipate the season

What would you do?

I've been on deployment to Pennsylvania for the past few months and I'm looking forward to going home next week. It's not that I don't like talking with people and educating them about flood recovery and things a home owner can do. But the media incited public babble of the past week me looking forward to being with people who understand the meaning of morality.

For many years Penn State University sheltered a peadophile in their football program, had been informed of the persons crimes and had done nothing to remove the individual from their ranks and turn him over to the police for investigation and possible criminal procedings. As usually happens when the tawdry affair was finally brought to the light of day those responsible for doing nothing are breathlessly claiming that they never knew a thing. It looks like several of them might be going to jail, the perpatrator is looking forward to being "Bubba's best friend" for the rest of his life and the head football coach has been fired after 46 years on the job.

What makes me glad to be leaving and returning home is that a poll of Pennsylvania residents found that well over half of the people they talked to think that firing the coach, a man who knew that his assistant was an active peadophile and only mentioned it in passing to his boss after some one had seen the perp in a criminal act with a minor boy.

When I was growing up that kind of behavior would get you hard time, if the neighborhood even let you live long enough to go to trial. And where I live now there would be no hesitation to "discuss the situation" in private long before the courts cam into the picture.

I'll be glad to see the open plains of the MidWest.

Sign of the times

Vision is Everything

In my last post I talked about the issue of dealing with clouds of people who were willing to spend their day waiting in line. Since then I've moved away from the urban disaster recovery center to a more rural environment that includes some heavy industry and the change in environment is dramatic.

At this facility we see slightly more people who have been damaged by the floods, but there is a lot more structural damage with foundations failing due to hydrostatic pressure and some subsidance of building because the water washed out underneath the walls of the building. These are major events and repair will be time consuming and expensive and many of the people I talk to have lived in their house for several decades. They didn't anticipate their later years to be taken up with finding money to rebuild their home, spending inordanate amounts of time geting the work done and still trying to live a productive life.

Listening to an 80 year old couple tell me that they don't have insurance, live on Social Security and have no friends or family makes me proud of the resiliancy of the human spirit when they tell me that they really feel bad about asking for assistance since "there are others who need help more than I do". Old and frail they might be, but in their minds they are coping and adapting in a way I can only admire.

Working the line

The Disaster Recovery Center I'm working out of is located in one of the (Big Northeastern city) suburbs in a very affluent county. My job is to talk to each of the applicants about how to repair the damage that they endured and also how to prepare and respond to future events that come their way. I speak for the federal program but cooperate with any state programs that address mitigation. In addition the DRC hosts a range of state programs that offer aid and assistance to those in need, and therein lies the root of a problem we had last week

The state welfare department announced that they would be handing out electronic food stamps to qualified individuals and that well intentioned support gesture resulted in a massive turnout of applicants from the city. It was just turning light when I checked into the center (about 3 hours before official opening) and found a line of about 50 people, and by the time the doors opened we had about 650 people in line and since it took the state a minimum of 15 minutes to process each applicant the math indicated we would be working until very late that night to process just the food stamp people. That meant that the applicants were going to be waiting...and waiting...and waiting before they could be processed. A perfect setting for high frustration levels and a potential riot situation.

The Center manager and a couple of the program managers took it upon ourselves to try to cool emotions and keep the peace. We walked and talked, offered sympathy and told everybody the truth about why we had the stack up and what we could and could not do to make their wait in line go faster/easier. Strangly enough the sight of "officials" walking the line and listening to their complaints not only calmed emotions, it even brought smiles and friendly comments. At least one other station lost control of their crowd which makes us believe that we must have done something right.

The old management rule of "managing by waking around" was proven that day.