Gravity is one of those things that impacts us all. I was an Airborne Ranger in the Army as an infantryman. It was gravity that caused me to use a parachute when I jumped out of helicopters and planes. To not do so would be to ignore reality. Having taken a fall from a ladder when pruning a tree one Super Bowl Sunday, cracking a few ribs was a lesson in physics. The ladder went one way and I was propelled in the opposite direction — and downward. There it is, gravity again entered my life's experience.
Nationally, we are in a "reality show" and wondering what is fact or fiction. What is true and what is make believe can be hard to determine. In an age of "image and symbolism," reality can be hidden from our eyes.
Remembering my experiences with gravity — FYI, there was another experience of jumping off a 12-foot wall in the dark during a combat in cities exercise, not a good outcome — I'm wondering when and if science will once again intervene in the affairs of state to bring us all back to the point where ignoring both gravity and medical science can be to one's detriment.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
