New York Overreacted

The New York Times today had an article on addressing the question: Did New York overreact to the snow storm today? Yes, they did.

Don't get me wrong: it is a huge and dangerous storm, but the snow is fluffy not wet so power outages will be minimized.

I grew up in North Dakota with blizzard conditions occurring many times each winter. While one did not want to be reckless and inviting trouble, such weather events were taken in stride, and no one responded with such fretting, hyping and worry.

I goad Americans all the time to maverize. What this entails in part is habituating each adult, woman or man, to assume and adopt a manly courage and can-do toughness and cheerfulness of outlook that allows them and expects them to weather most or all of life's storms, the natural, the economic, and the emotional throes to visit each of them.

We need people that are physically and mentally tough, and resilient to handle whatever comes at them.

In about 1984 I was working as a custodian at Southdale, and we had a winter blizzard with 26 inches of snow, accompanied by low temperatures, bitter winds and drifts piled high like in the New York storm. The roads were closed. I ran a Tenant scrubber machine at 5:00 am to scrub the vast shopping center terrazzo floors.

Our little car could not get out of the apartment parking lot. I walked three miles in a northwest wind from Richfield to Edina to go to work. Being at work and being there on time were that deeply ingrained in me from childhood.

The shopping center never opened that day and only a small handful of workers made it. I was mopping the public stairs when Don Struck, who lived two blocks away, came by and asked me how I was doing. I answered in good spirits: the place was a tomb. Don looked at me, and said, "I think you like working alone." He was so right.

I am not gloating about New York wimpiness. The point is that this overreaction is a further indication of the dumbing down intellectually and the pussification of the general American psyche.

If the traditional media, the ruling class and the statists can make people afraid, meek, disspirited, defeated, dependent and minus senses of adventure and curiosity, then the moral rot that they have sowed in America will have been so pervasive and deep that Ameritopia is in the offing. We will be non-achieving, submissive groupists, wards of the state, accepting government tyranny, caste  assignment and institutional rankings.

I cut wood in the winter in a February vacation for Mom and Dad every winter to supplement their wood until they died. There were many days when it was 0 to 10 degrees below zero while cutting up trees in the grove. Sometimes, I was so hot that I cut without a coat. Lumberjacks would tell the same tale.

We can do more than we realize. We can cast aside the gloom, the doubts and the hesitation to become greater, more developed people. This is the message, the standard, that the New York media and leaders need to communicate to the residents.

Government is not society and government need not be everything for you and do everything for you. So, a blizzard is imminent; what to do: Winter jog, play pond hockey with the kids, build a snow fort, run the fireplace, sled downhill, walk the dog, take the kids around the block for a walk. Check on all the old and disabled people for two square blocks to make sure they are okay and have what they need.

Do not under react to winter storms, but take them in stride. That is how we became a great people, and that is our key to a more successful, glittering tomorrow.