How Best to Deter and Repair Major Disasters

How Best to Deter and Repair Major Disasters By Ted Becker One haiku in my free online book The Haiku Blues (www.haikublues.com) goes like this: Only the Public Knows. Until the people are involved, global issues will go unresolved.. This will be the theme of this blog, no matter what major public disaster is involved in the United States or elsewhre. This will include: (1) disasters that are in progress, like the Iraq War: (2) disasters that are over but there is a lot of rebuilding to do (Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, Rita; The World Trade Center site; the Indian Ocean tsunami; (3) disasters yet to come but are probable: (a) global flu pandemic, (b) more geopolitical wars that only political leaders want; (c)global warming and climate change; (d) major economic disruptions like soaring gasoline prices, global economic deflation; etc. The essence of this blog as written by myself and any discussion it stimulates will be that public deliberation is the only sensible solution to the problem. As things are presently ordered in this crazy world, the very people who create the conditions for the disasters (except for some exclusively natural ones like volcanic eruptions, asteroid strikes) are the very ones who usually decide on their own on how to rebuild or alter the situation after the tragedy strikes. Does this seem logical? In other words, most of the major disasters of the 20th century, e.g., world wars, atomic bombs, depressions, genocide, the Spanish flu were all entirely or substantially the result of the decisions made by very powerful men cloistered behind the walls of government buildings or corporate headquarters or both. Hundreds of millions of men, women and children perished in atrocious ways. Nations and cities were obliterated. And who were the ones who did the planning to undo this carnage? The very same type of people, under much the same conditions, as those who planned them in the first place. Did the people really decide anything? No. Were they allowed to enter into any kind of rational discussion about it? No. Are we today? No....except for some of the rare exceptions mentioned in the Journal of Public Deliberation (www.auburn.edu/jpd) Are there really ways in which the public can actually be involved in making highly complex decisions that will effect their future in their local places, in the states or provinces, in their countries, in global affairs? This isn’t even a good question anymore. The proof of it has been tested, retested, in many different cultures, under many different circumstances, over and over again. People care about their lives and welfare. The vast diversity of views at any level is necessary to make wise decisions about planning about almost everything. The JPD is a good place to learn about all these experiments and projects, but so are many of the places or books to which we link. The variations are endless. The results always the same: the people are the best ones to make such important decisions but they are not given the proper tools and conditions to do it. Instead, the wealthy and powerful hide behind what they call "representative democracies" or "people’s republics" and make these decisions with hidden agendas and insufficient intelligence. The Journal of Public Deliberation would like to start a global, cyber-discussion of this topic via the method of the Internet blog. This is it. This is my first "editorial" in blog form. It sets the tone and the kind of discussion that I think is needed. I look forward to where it leads....even if that means me talking, once again, to my favorite listener: myself.