Sept. 22, 2005 - 23:41 MDT

CROSS PURPOSES

A screaming terror is crossing the Gulf Of Mexico tonight. Last I heard is that it is headed for Port Arthur, Texas where my friend Ava and her husband Gordon have a house. She said earlier today that she and Gordon were bugging out, headed for safety. I do pray that they are not stuck in that wall to wall concrete parking lot that so many cars are stuck in. Hope they have enough gasoline to reach safety.

Then, their safety being prime, comes another consideration. Like so many other people, victims of Katrina and other hurricanes in the past - - there is a hope that their house is still there and their city is functioning.

Hard to concentrate on much of any thing but people in the Gulf States whose lives, homes and cities are threatened to be wiped off the face of the earth.

I did notice a small "letter to the editor" written commenting on a column by Jason Salzman. In the Rocky Mountain News today Thrusday 22. In full:

Who is victimized by Wal-Mart's foresight ?

"News media columnist Jason Salzman is aghast that following Katrina, Wal-Mart "hustled hurricane goods (water, batteries) down to Louisiana." (A spin on the left side of the dial," On The Media, Sept. 17.)

"And before an earlier hurricane the "monster company . . . . .made sure all the popular hurricane items were stocked in abundance when Huricane Frances was spinning toward Florida." And then the wicked corportation had the nerve to sell these products to people willing to buy them !"

"Salzman, obviously the product of an education in economics received only through the popular media and perhaps from college professors knowledgeable only in theories ranging from Keynesian to Marxist must be purely ignorant of free-market economics. I wonder if he's ever heard of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, George Gilder, or Adam Smith."

"Has he ever heard the term "the invisible hand ?" Can his liberally wired brain not grasp the concept of people and businesses selling items that profit both the seller and the buyer ?"

"Smith once noted that it's not for love of his neighbor that a baker sells him a loaf of bread. It's to make money and to provide for the baker's family. But both the baker and his customer benefit from this voluntary exchange. That's the foundation of free-market capitalism."

"Who, Mr. Salzman, is the victim when Wal-Mart rushed hurricane goods to its stores in the path of an oncoming storm ? I don't understand. Please explain in a future column."

"Signed by Alan Hobden -- Florissant, Colorado"

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I guess Mr. Salzman doesn't read news from the same sources I do. Seems as how I remember Wal-Mart sending many trailers of charitable goods to Louisiana. I made comment on that and was told, "Well, Wal-Mart is of the South. Sure, if Arkansas is of "the South" it is - - - so what ? What does that have to do with their efforts for the welfare of New Orleans or any other place threatened by forces of nature. And why not stock up ahead and sell to folks when they need what they need ?

I am not necessarily a rooter for the big W-M, yet I admire how they have acted in these times.

Adam Smith - - - if Mr. Hobden and I have read the same tome, Adam Smith existed sometime in the era of the American Revolution and wrote of what he knew then. Remarkably his words have remained quite pertinent to me today.

I fully realize that if a worker is worthy of his hire, a merchant is worthy of his profit, if his goods are of decent quality.

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Somewhere around 24 hours from now, somewhere on the Gulf Coast Hurrican Rita will wreak its havoc, lay waste to land and buildings and kill people in its way. Being in the "Golden Years" of life, I have no money to contribute, not enough energy to make a quick shopping trip through the supermarket without using the grocery cart as a "make do" walker as well as grocery carrier, nor do I have any real expertise that would be of help. All I can do is pray for all people who are, will be or have been victims of such devastation.

It seems in public life "finger pointing" is going on at a great rate, with Mr. Hobden making common sense remarks regarding some of it. It appears to me that everybody is upset over the mess in New Orleans and that most everybody is working at CROSS PURPOSES . . . . . . . . . .

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