To spray or not to spray...that is our country.

I keep hearing mixed reports as to whether or not the aerial spraying in Dallas County was affective in eradicating the West Nile carrying mosquitos. Some reports say yes. Others aren’t so sure. I know around our swimming pool in the evening, they are gone. Like zero in attendance. Before the spraying we were being driven inside with the buzzing creatures attacks.

But one thing is for certain, a centralized body of government made a decision for the health of us all to try and ease the problem of deaths due to this dreaded disease.  That is communism according to some who have objected to the spraying. While I am not sure it ranks up there with the theories of Karl Marx, it was a bit off putting to some to have bureaucrats make decisions for us like that.

The good news is that they looked at it long and hard and made a well-informed decision based on science, medicine and a real population need. They also had a lot of open dialog and forums to hear from all sides – including doctors and scientists. But many of my “liberal” friends objected. Too much intrusion into our lives, they scolded.

I reminded them, this is how the Right sees Obamacare. It is part and parcel the same. Government taking over healthcare for society. And while those of us with half a brain know that is NOT what is happening, there are still those fundamentalists who argue that just because it has a mandate in it, it is socialism. And because the skies were filled with government planes spraying chemicals it was a plot to poison us all. (No, really, I heard that.)

Spraying in Dallas County was NOT an act of social upheaval and conspiratorial attacks on our freedoms. It was an act of county-wide health control practiced sparingly in our state. It is little different than crop dusting. Now I know the Green Party will stand up and shout for Organic America, but a recent article in the New York Times explained that there seems to be no real benefit between organically grown vegetables and those using the more modern methods. While I am not sure I’d side with that piece of science totally, I will say that the spraying did much more good than any harm it might have caused to your carrots and radishes in your organic garden.

It wasn’t DDT. It wasn’t a carcinogen. It was an organically developed pesticide that kills mosquitos – and more importantly kills the carriers of West Nile Disease: a disease that was killing hundreds of citizens in Dallas, Tarrant and Denton counties. And it does its work without affecting people, pets and most pollen carriers – namely bees, although to hear the bee industry and regular people talk, it was the end of the world as we know it. (Thanks to R.E.M. for the lyrics.)

I do hope our country can get back to harmonious discussion of issues and that things like spraying for mosquitos do not carry the life and death arguments as seen between neighbors here in Dallas. Let’s save those really big arguments for whom we should invade next. We’ve got a war winding down in Afghanistan. It’s time to send our troops somewhere new.

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