Is the Bush Strategy a Recipe for More Folly?

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A related question is what should be the role of the loyal opposition. Democratic legislators now control Congress. Should they try to block a plan to increase troop strength in Iraq, or should they reluctantly go along? Do they have a better plan? Would they initiate talks with Iran and Syria, a suggestion of the Iraq Study Group that Mr. Bush has firmly rebuffed? How might they persuade other nations to take a larger role in a settlement in Iraq?

Bush has talked about bipartisanship, but does this mean strategy or solutions in which leaders of both parties have a say? Or will it be an adaptation of the old Soviet formula of "What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable"? Will Bush be willing, for example, to sacrifice his tax cuts favoring the wealthy in order to make a start on balancing the budget? Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid also have talked about bipartisanship. The country surely is ready for it, but will they play fair with the Republican opposition in contrast to the way the Republicans ran Congress?

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A much respected historian whom I used to know, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wrote recently: "History is the best antidote to delusions of omnipotence and omniscience. Self-knowledge is the indispensable prelude to self-control, for the nation as well as for the individual, and history should forever remind us of the limits of our passing perspectives. It should strengthen us to resist the pressure to convert momentary impulses into moral absolutes. It should lead us to acknowledge our profound and chastening frailty as human beings, to a recognition of the fact, so often and so sadly displayed, that the future outwits all our certitudes and that the possibilities of the future are more various than the human intellect is designed to conceive." Wise words, these.

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Last fall the Massachusetts Legislature enacted a remarkable program to provide adequate health care for all residents, leaving a number of bugs to be squashed, such as the financial details. The Connecticut General Assembly will be under pressure to adopt a similar approach, although we may hope with more attention on how to pay for it.

A not-incidental benefit of such an approach is to challenge the insurance industry to come up with its own version of universal coverage at moderate cost. At least in theory, a combination of public and private planning might be the best means of evolving a practical program.

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Any drowning is regrettable, but that at Twin Lakes Sunday morning is extra sad because it might well have been preventable if the victim and his companions had worn life preservers. Such safety provisions are required by law, but they are hard to enforce during the winter season when lakes are not patrolled. Yet rescue teams risk their own lives to save people who ignore the rules.

No law can protect against human folly. When we lived in Britain in the early 1960s, I always wondered about the lack of guardrails above precipices in the national parks. The explanation was that you were supposed to know better than to get too close to a hazard.

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Ed McDonald of Salisbury notes the unusual name of a prospective Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, reminds him of a story told by George Semler, a former town resident, about how a prominent local landmark, Barrack Matiff, got its name. It seems that an Indian brave, who was running along the top of what the U.S. Geological Survey map describes as Wetauwanchu Mountain, stumbled and fell on his face. "Baroke my teef," he explained as he got up.

My understanding is that Barack Matiff is a corruption of the old Dutch term for "big mountain," something like bergh massif. Anyhow, a Salisbury town map of 1853 described the 1,281-foot-high ridge as "Barack Matiff," whereas an 1899 map described it more sedately as "Wetauwanchu Mountain." I like "Barack Matiff."

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Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. I have enjoyed reading in Frank McCourt’s book "Teacher Man" the interesting excuses offered by some of his high school students about why they were unprepared, such as "The dog ate my homework." Well, I met a 94-year-old man recently, very much with it in other respects, who explained that he couldn’t hear very well because his dog had eaten his hearing aid. Honest.