THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, according to the Old Testament's gloomy Preacher, but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Time and chance happened to Hampton Roads over the weekend, and the effects linger on. First, we were sideswiped by the storm of the century. Next, an underground electrical problem knocked out power for downtown Norfolk.
This double whammy reminded us of two facts we are inclined to forget. They are worth keeping in mind. First, no man is an island. We're all a part of many complex interrelationships. None of us subsists in a frontier cabin anymore, totally self-reliant. We are connected in myriad ways.
When snow closes an airport, the effects reverberate throughout the system and can strand travelers a dozen states away. When the lights go out in Norfolk, the newspaper arrives late in Virginia Beach. It's only when we don't have them that we realize how essential the essential services are - roads, air travel, utilities.
We are all caught up in innumerable worldwide webs. We all rely on the various grids for light, power and even survival. We all participate in the complicated linkages of modern life. Rugged individualism is fine in theory, but in practice we are all in this thing together.
Which brings us to the second point. When things go wrong, we depend on one another. And most of the time, help is on the way. The Preacher may be right about the race not going to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But who, then, does come through when the chips are down?
We unconsciously count on the steady, the reliable, the resourceful, the dependable. They're the emergency-room doctors and nurses, the ambulance drivers and airline pilots, the linemen climbing poles in a blizzard, the firefighters battling white heat in the freezing cold, the technicians who descend into a black hole to turn the lights back on. And sooner or later, nine times out of 10, they do the job.
When much of the rhetoric we hear advises us that life is an every-man-for-himself struggle, it doesn't hurt to be made aware every once in a while that we aren't alone but linked in ways we don't even understand. When government is daily denounced as an enemy of the people, it's worth recalling that the government is also people whom we count on in a pinch - the police and the military, firefighters and road crews, air-traffic controllers and dozens of others who keep the fabric of our lives knitted together.
Every day, in dozens of ways, we depend on one another for travel, safety, health and our livelihoods. And most of the time, we aren't disappointed. Our faith is not misplaced. Our fellow citizens rise to the challenge. It's too bad it takes a blizzard, a fire, a blackout to remind us. by CNB