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Memory is a funny thing. There must be a function in one of our lobes that filters out the unpleasant and retains only what we want to remember. Mine must be shorted out. When I was still wondering what in hell I was doing in Charlotte, NC in 1996, my Parents in Florida informed me of yet another flood in St. Pete, FL where another family of 4 was reduced to 2 when the mother / wife and daughter were swept into an unguarded storm drain and dumped rather unceremoniously into the Gulf of Mexico. What got my attention was the City Engineer stated that this had never happened before. I know for an absolute fact it had happened before at least once, as when my now ex-wife & I lived in Largo (not Key Largo), just a little north of St. Pete, a wife / mother and daughter were swept out to sea through an unguarded storm drain in 1979 and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was the same drain. What's more, if it had happened before the 1979 incident, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it had been the same storm drain!
I only mention this because it appears we as a species do seem doomed to repeat our failures over and over again. Are we capable of learning? It may be possible, but it also seems those who do learn are not the ones who can do anything to rectify the situation. I don't want to come across as a complete and total defeatist, but it sure looks like we are screwed! C'esspool la vie! Anybody who believes the government gives a damn about us is out of their effing mind! The elected ones sort of care one day every so many years when it comes to snagging our vote, and even then how can we be certain our votes actually get counted? We don't fund their election campaigns, so we don't matter to most of them.
