Ten years ago I wrote a blog about warning the public about a pending disaster.
In the blog I wrote that all politicians know about Sam Yorty when he was mayor of Los Angeles. Yorty evacuated 80,000 people whose lives were at risk because they lived below a dammed lake (Van Norman Reservoir). The dam didn’t break. In the next election the district at risk voted against Sam Yorty. Lesson: it is always better to let the voters die.
I am reminded of that because the LA Public School System closed for a day, last week, due to an emailed bomb threat. The next day there was a tsunami of complaints about the false alarm
NY got the same email but didn’t close the schools. Said the authority in NY: ‘the note spelled ‘allah’ without a capital A, I knew it was phony.’
In the same blog, ten years ago, I also mentioned the brave action of Ariel Sharon in evacuating the Israeli residents of Gaza.
In retrospect that brilliant and politically unpopular move was a failure. Without Jews in Gaza, the local Arabs became much more dangerous. To this day, Gaza is an example that appeasing Arabs is a bad idea. It makes them behave worse. A friendly hand to an Arab is met with a knife attack.
Political lessons. No wonder politics doesn't resemble a sandbox.