At our last Selectmen’s meeting we were discussing an abandoned fire pond and how to deal with it, as well as a constituent’s complaints about the drainage problems in his new development. The issue of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, as well as West Nile virus, came up. As I was thinking about this sort of issue, as well as the disaster in the South, I realized that the war in Iraq and the GWOT have a real impact on my town as we look at public health issues.

We expect that global warming will bring new insect borne diseases to our area, along with new insects to infect our crops, including maple trees. (I have a sign, a very long lasting sign, out by the road that says SAVE OUR SYRUP - STOP GLOBAL WARMING. It has been there since the primary campaign began two years ago.) We also remember that no one has yet found out who sent the anthrax letters four years ago this fall. We no longer hear about small pox vaccinations. But we hear a lot about bird flu, and epidemics that may kill millions. And we hear that at the national level, the CDC is underfunded due to the war (along with real homeland security) and suffering from the anti-science policies of the Bush administration.

We can do just so much at the state and local level about threats to public health. We can urge sensible precautions like draining standing water, correcting structural defects that allow disease-bearing creatures to live too close to us, provide education at every level on basic personal and community health care initiatives (although it is becoming increasingly difficult to address sex education in the current climate), and enact local and regional environmental protections; but some public health issues that affect all Americans can only be addressed at the national level, such as providing adequate and/or new vaccine supplies, research into major health hazards, and environmental protections that cover larger regions and the global sphere.

However, this administration has a very politicized view of science. Their approach seems to be part of that “we create reality” view that we heard about a year or so ago, a denial of the value, or even existence, of objective truth about the world. Science is just another bunch of words to be twisted to get the results they want. Unfortunately for them, the reality of the natural world, the economic world and the social world is beginning to bite back. Katrina is “real” reality coming back to bite. Neither the will, nor the funds, have been available, because we are fighting a non-real war on terror.