Problems We Can’t Solve

“Oppenheimer” from Universal Pictures (Fair Use)

We can solve any problem if we just put our minds to it, right?  I don’t think so.  And I’m not talking about medical issues like curing cancer, or scientific issues such as faster-than-light speed.

What I mean is – that there are big, major problems in life that are within the realm of solving.  But we never do, and most likely we never will. 

Why, for example, are so many children raised without fathers?  Why do we kill thousands of wonderful dogs and cats each year because nobody wants them?  Why does America sometimes feel like it’s coming apart at the seams?  Why do we put things in our bodies that we know will kill us?  How can we make Justice really blind?

And is it Climate Change that will destroy the world?  Or is it something else; something that we could stop.  But we never will.

AUDIO:  Random Samplings of a Logical Mind

Each of these problems, and hundreds of others are man-made issues and we could solve them.  So, why don’t we?

If I knew the answer to that question, I ought to win the Nobel Prize for Logical Thought as well as the Pulitzer Prize.  Of course, the basic answer is that smart people do stupid things.  And they repeat the same mistakes over and over.  Buy hey, we’re friends here!  Let’s state a few solvable problems and see what the answers might be if we only had the will.  And we’ll step on some toes in the process, but toe-stomping is necessary.  You know, breaking eggs and omelets and such.

Problem #1:  Why do we have so many missing fathers?

This nags at me. But this is a blunt column, and the answer is that society doesn’t have much in the way of consequences for men who get women pregnant and then disappear.  Young men who grew up in a fatherless household may see no problem with getting a girlfriend pregnant and then skipping out.  Besides, society enables this type of thing with welfare programs for single mothers, and in some instances, the women know how to work the system.

RELATED: When Will They Ever Learn? 

In my own life, both my mother and my father were vital to me as a child and into my adulthood.  We need fathers, but in our modern, enlightened society, children are taught that there are many types of families.  And, indeed, we can’t force a male to marry a female just because he’s impregnated her.  I know of a young man who very likely could not tell you how many girls he’s impregnated or how many children he has fathered.  He doesn’t know, or care.

The solution:  It would be simple to end this problem, although my solution would probably cause more abortions.  Too often from the standpoint of the male — he don’t [sic] care.  The female may care, but she’s getting money from the government.  You stop it this way, and you have to do it with a law:   Suppose the law states that in order to get any welfare, the woman must identify the father.  The man would have due process, of course, but modern DNA testing would decide paternity.  If the child is his, the judge in the case would set a monthly amount that would go to the child’s benefit until the child is 21.  Failure to pay would mean prison.

Yes, I know about child support, but under this law, deadbeats would go to prison for a long time.  Word would get out, and this crap would mostly stop.  The moral of the law is this:  If you make a baby, you take care of it.  Period.  If you don’t have a job, you’d better find one.

Problem #2:  Why do we kill thousands of unwanted pets?

There are two sayings about this issue that drive me to drinking.  First, we talk about “putting a dog to sleep.”  That’s not what we are doing and we are lying to our children when we tell them that.  The second rhetoric that drives me crazy is when some idiot parent refuses to spay or neuter a pet so that his/her kids can “witness the miracle of birth.”  That makes me wish I could go back in time to stop yours – if you’ve ever said that.

Dog or cats that are sick or violent may have to be put down – killed – destroyed – euthanized – whatever you call it.  But most of them are good dogs and cats that sit in a small wire cage or in a doggie jail cell waiting for a loving home that never happens.  They end up getting poisoned with an injection, tossed onto a truck and taken to the landfill.  Most of these animals would be 100 percent loyal to a human that took them in and showed them kindness.

The solution:  Obviously, spay and neuter your pets.  Don’t buy them from breeders or puppy mills.  Go to the animal shelter and save a dog or a cat from the needle.  You can’t save them all, but you will save that one.  You will come to love it, and it will love you back by multiples.

Problem #3:  Why do we put deadly substances into our bodies?

The easy answer is that, at first, we think it’s cool.  Everybody is doing it, and peer pressure is a deadly force, and then we get addicted.  Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is working to get the crap out of the processed foods we eat.  I’m with him on that 100 percent.  I’ve fumed about it for years, but he’s the first Washington big shot to try to fix it.  That’s not what I’m talking about here.

Let’s tip the hat to Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who made a valiant attempt to get THC products banned in his state.  The Legislature passed it by a large vote, but Governor Greg Abbott vetoed it.  Why?  Because of the blowback.  Too many people buy and sell these products, and though Patrick made a good case for their danger – who cares?  In the time of Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, bootlegging was rampant.  Prohibition didn’t work because people liked alcohol.

Cigarettes and other tobacco products kill people.  But the people who eventually die from them liked using them.  They could have stopped, but were too addicted to stop, or just plain didn’t want to.  We’ve known about the dangers of smoking for generations.

Video:  Bill Talman made this PSA and then he died.  I don’t smoke, but if I did, this would be a wake-up call.

The actor William Talman, who played District Attorney Hamilton Burger on the “Perry Mason” TV show, died of lung cancer.  Shortly before he passed, he made a compelling video about the dangers of smoking, but few people listened.  In his movies, the great actor Humphrey Bogart was rarely seen without a cigarette.  He died a painful death from lung cancer.  So did hundreds of Hollywood actors of the time.  So did newscaster Peter Jennings.  So did Rush Limbaugh.

The solution:  Illegal narcotics were made illegal for a reason.  Don’t use them, and end the practice of not prosecuting “minor” drug crimes in our big cities.  As for smoking and other tobacco use — that’s on you, buddy.  I know your 98-year-old grandpa smoked all his life and it never hurt him at all.  I’ve heard that one too many times.  You can hang onto that hope if you want — or you could stop using a substance you know will probably kill you.

Problem #4:  Why don’t we require immigrants to assimilate?

In two words, political correctness.  But it erodes our unity.  The entire fad, that hopefully the country is moving past, of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was a direct assault on the Melting Pot.  Back in the nineties, the term that we used for DEI was “multiculturalism.”  I went on KIXL 970 in Austin on a regular basis when my daughter was being fed multiculturalism at school.  Today, I make the same arguments on Talk 1370 on the “Cardle & Woolley Show.” 

It’s more than just left-wing classroom instruction and a far-left media.  What bothers me is the new trend for birds of a feather to flock together.  Take the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), which is a proposed enclave with about 1,000 residences, a Mosque, and a K-12 faith-based school, which one assumes would teach the Muslim faith.  That’s the opposite of assimilation, and many Texas leaders, including Governor Abbott, oppose the idea.

Video:  WFAA-TV reports on EPIC City — and why so many people don’t want it.

I might also point out that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar doesn’t seem to be well-assimilated either.  It makes me wonder why we allow so many people into America from countries that burn our flag and chant “death to America.”

Beyond that issue, it still galls me to hear large families in stores like Walmart speaking Spanish to the kids.  These folks appear to be permanent residents, so where’s the English?  Don’t get me wrong.  Spanish is a beautiful language and Hispanic families ought to preserve it.  But for their children, English should come first.

The solution:  Congress should impose a ban on mass emigration from countries that teach their people to hate us.  Anyone allowed in from such a country should be triple-vetted.  Congress should make English the official language and stop printing everything in two or more languages unless there is a logical reason to do so.  Retail stores should post ads and signage in English so that their customers will be forced to learn it.

RELATED: Twenty-three years after 9/11, what have we learned? 

Problem #5:  Why is equal justice so expensive?

Lady Justice must have lost her blindfold.  I’ve noticed that justice often goes the way of the accused criminal that has really good lawyers.  But really good lawyers are expensive.  I remember the T. Cullen Davis trials that took place in Amarillo and Houston.  At the time, Davis was the richest person in America to have been put on trial for murder.  He was tried twice, once for the murder of his stepdaughter, and again for attempting to have a judge murdered.  He beat the rap both times – with expensive lawyers like Racehorse Haynes.

Video: From the WFAA-TV vault- coverage of T. Cullen Davis.

Likewise, O.J. Simpson was the obvious murderer (to virtually everyone) of his ex-wife and another person.  But he had lawyers like Johnny Cochran, and he walked.  Sean Combs recently beat two of the most serious charges against him.  You or I could not do that.  A court-appointed lawyer may take a case seriously, but “The Good Wife” isn’t real life.

Justice ought not be about who’s rich enough to get lawyers who can pick a favorable jury and then manipulate it.  If you think lawyers are all about justice, think again.  Most are about winning.  I refer you to the seminal book Anatomy of a Murder, by Robert Traver, and the subsequent Jimmy Stewart movie.   Reading the book is like attending a seminar on how justice should not be conducted.  But it is.

The solution:   You tell me.  But perhaps if rich defendants like “Diddy” got court-appointed lawyers, the worm would turn.  Unfortunately, people that have money will have better justice than the rest of us can even dream of.  (Note that my story “The Man in Black” from my book Darker Secrets, was “suggested” by the Cullen Davis case.)

Problem #6:  The Morning Dew.

This is one we need to fix, and is an add-on for this column, since I finally had a chance to watch the movie “Oppenheimer.”  It’s an amazing movie, written and directed by Christopher Nolan from the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.  It will make you think.  It may even cause you nightmares.  Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project that developed the atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.

Video:  “Oppenheimer” trailer.  A movie that will make you think, and might even scare you. 

How would you have felt if you were tasked with creating a doomsday weapon that would be used to kill thousands of people with a single strike?  Which brings me to the term “Morning Dew.”   Some of you may know that I perform music for residents of retirement communities when I’m not on the radio.  I prefer old music, and I constantly add to my repertoire.  A new-old song for me is one by the Canadian singer-songwriter Bonnie Dobson.  In the song, “morning dew” is a euphemism for nuclear fallout.

It’s a haunting song with a killer melody – but not suitable for all audiences.  The woman in the song and her husband are the only survivors of a nuclear detonation.  They have only a short time to live and she implores her husband to “walk me out in the morning dew, my love.”  In succeeding verses, she hallucinates that she hears a young man or a baby crying, but — they’re all dead.  “I can’t walk you out in the morning dew today,” he responds.  You can find Dobson’s version on You Tube, or Lulu’s or that of the Grateful Dead.  “Oppenheimer” should have used the song – which was inspired by a much earlier movie called “On the Beach.”

Video:  Chilling early version of Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew.” 

If Oppenheimer – the human being – was conflicted, then what of Biden, Trump, Putin, Xi, and the Ayatollahs that so badly want to join the club?  Watch the movie, and give a listen to “Morning Dew,” and then you may wonder how we all sleep at night.

RELATED:  Russian President Vladimir Putin Among History’s Most Brutal Murderers 

The solution:  MAD – Mutual Assured Destruction — may be only thing that saves us.  In the movie, Oppenheimer is asked whether the world will end if they set off the atom bomb.  They did, and it didn’t.  But Edward Teller had a bigger bomb in mind – the Hydrogen or H-Bomb.  We can destroy the world.  All it would take is a mad Vladimir Putin or crazed religious fanatics who think their virgins await.  If Mutual Assured Destruction is the only deterrent, then pray it works.

Note that each of these 6 “problems” is man-made.

They are things we do, as humans, that we could change or stop doing.  But we don’t and we won’t.  You could sit down at the word processor and write a new column – every one of you – with a dozen more insane things that people do.  We won’t solve those either.  I’m not suggesting we live in fear.  I’m just saying that some of our problems are of our own doing and are easily undone if we had the desire or the will.  Even if we do nothing, the sun will come up in the morning, until one day it doesn’t.

Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter.  Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us.  Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. 

Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site.  Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.

In the second story, there’s a nuclear strike.  In the third story, Earth is uninhabitable.  But there’s always a way out.