Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Into The Void with John Miller

Fear: Enemy Of Progress

There was no doubt what the decision would be when the Health Committee of the Prescott City Council met Thursday morning to "discuss" whether or not to recommend allowing a medical waste treatment facility to locate here. It was a resounding NO!

The reason  fear.

Those on the committee simply didn't want to fight public opinion and let the people of Prescott and Nevada County know the company operates in a safe manner. In fact, any company dealing with medical waste is highly regulated and must meet stringent state and federal guidelines before it can even begin operations.

As it was said in the meeting, the public's perception where medical waste is concerned is highly negative. Much of this is because of the way problems with medical waste have been reported in the media. Who hasn't seen footage of syringes washing up on the beaches in New Jersey?

What people tend to forget, is this sort of thing is not the norm, but is an aberration. If this happened all the time the Environmental Protection Agency would have a Superfund for it, just as it did for toxic waste a few years back.

Still, the basic reason for not recommending the company be allowed to locate here is fear, blind stupid fear.

Where would we, as a people, be had our forefathers caved in because they were afraid.

Let's see. Columbus wouldn't have had the guts to fight for the funds to make his voyage to the New World, even though the idea was to go to China.

Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin wouldn't have bothered to buck the Brits, because of the unfair taxation, and we would all be under the queen's benevolent rule now.

Lincoln wouldn't have signed the 14th Amendment and the South could have very easily won the Civil War, thereby successfully seceding from the Union and we, in Arkansas, would be residents of the Confederate States of America.

Fear would have kept Fulton from inventing the steam engine, Crockett from going to fight Santa Anna at the Alamo, Bell from developing the telephone and Edison from inventing the phonograph, light bulb and a host of other gadgets we take for granted today. Ford wouldn't have came up with the idea of the assembly line and Hitler could have posted a victory in World War II had Roosevelt been afraid of joining the Allies.

While fear is a natural reaction to the unknown, it is also the single worst enemy of mankind. Let's face it, we're a cowardly bunch for the most part, choosing to leave a few "crackpots" and "adventurers" to do the hard work, while we sit back and enjoy the benefits of their courage.

But we're talking about a company wanting to locate a medical waste treatment facility in Prescott, not venturing in the realm of Seward's Folly, or Lewis and Clark, or Jim Bridger, or Thomas Jefferson and the like.

It's only five jobs to start with. Just five jobs with wages from $9 to $16 an hour.

The figures and statistics on the company show it to be safe. In fact, along with having to deal with the EPA, Aegis Biomedical also works with the Arkansas Department of Health and the Department of Transportation to insure safety for its employees and the general population.

But we won't have to worry about them locating in Prescott. No siree. It's just not worth fighting to educate the public over five jobs. Now, had Aegis been wanting to hire 200 people things would have been differently, and the committee would have been more likely to recommend letting them set up shop here.

It's ironic this committee would worry about the safety of such a company and the possibility of accidents involving medical waste, when the city doesn't follow its own guidelines concerning utilities getting paid. Sounds like a case of the proverbial pot calling said kettle black. Perhaps the city's leaders should look a bit more closely into their own closets, cleaning them out before worrying about the closets of another. After all past due electric bills continue growing on a monthly basis, with the mayor telling the council this has happened since the first meter was installed and basically ignoring the situation at a cost of thousands of dollars a month to the city and its residents.

So once again, friends and neighbors, the great unwashed, uneducated masses make decisions affecting everyone else by stirring the fear pot. Remember, fear is a bitter-tasting dish, flavored heavily with bile and cowardice.

Eat heartily.