Auchtoon!When Death Begins
In his scifi/satire book series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams tells a story about the planet Golgafrigcham. The leaders of Golgafrigcham hatched a plan to rid themselves of what they considered the basically useless citizens. They announced that Golgafrigcham was doomed, and so three arks were to be built and all inhabitants sorted into three categories: Ark A would contain the leaders, scientists, and other high achievers. Ark C would carry all the people who made things and did things. And Ark B would carry everyone else, such as telephone sanitizers, public relations executives, and management consultants.
When the time came, Ark B was sent off with a mission to find another planet to colonize and with the promise that the other two arks would follow. Of course everybody else simply stayed and enjoyed happy lives — for a very brief time till a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone wiped them all out.
This is the story that came to mind when I read about the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners meeting this week and their decision to terminate the lease for the Planned Parenthood clinic in their county building. Right. The mere mention of Planned Parenthood can make things go sideways quickly, so I’m gonna state only my specific reaction: The beginning of a significant measles outbreak may not be the best time to be cutting back on public health resources. And perhaps digging deeper into our ideology may not yield the best results.
Feel free to discuss the details of all this among yourselves. I’m gonna go wipe down my iPhone with alcohol.
Annette said,
May 18, 2019 @ 10:54 am
Do you think that’s where Spinal Tap got the phone cleaner job for Derek? I never made that connection before and could never figure out how anyone would come up with such a random, weird job!
auch6963 said,
May 29, 2019 @ 10:48 am
Just saw this. Yes, I think that may very well may be. Definitely shared comedy sensibilities!