Asha Rangappa Quotes

Mary Ann Cross

Proenza was giving an explanation of why he had “blown the whistle” on the Department of Commerce over the QuickScat weather satellite. QuickScat, was the satellite that the Hurricane Center used to give early warnings about hurricanes and other tropical storms. However in 2007 it was still in service although it was only designed for a shorter period than it had already been functioning. Proenza and other scientists at NOAA reported that the satellite could fail at any time and leave the nation without an equivalent predictive tool. There had been a government plan to replace the satellite with a new one, but the cost was $400 million, but the Bush Administration had cut taxes massively and had gone from the Clinton budget surplus to the largest deficit then in American history. The administration told all senior officials that they should not tell Congress or the public that they needed any more money. When Proenza went public because he thought that people could easily die for lack of predictive capability of hurricanes, the George W, Bush administration suspended him for speaking out and not being loyal to the President and his administration. His loyalty was to the lives and safety of the American people and not to any politicians.

Even allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration, it is clear that there were many Americans who were personally armed in this period.

Gaver was a rabid gun enthusiast who advocated all Americans carry a gun.

There were very few people who believed that a pistol would have no defensive value then and there are very few today. The advocates of gun control grant its defensive value, but argue that the rise of using a gun is greater than the benefit of the use. Add to that the deaths from suicides and gun accidents which kill more Americans than those who are shot and killed intentionally.

This historical quotation gives us an interesting picture or Secret Service practices and First Family Security in 1937. Unlike all the first ladies before her and most after her, she was a very active political figure and regularly received threats. Yet she not only drove alone on occasions, but published that fact to the world in this column. Also, although an extreme liberal, she had little trouble carrying a gun and learning to use it. Her father and her Uncle Theodore Roosevelt both were very comfortable with guns. What is surprising is that the Secret Service did not provide more protection for her. At that time gun ownership had not yet become a political issue, and Mrs. Roosevelt, a committed liberal, thought nothing of “packing heat” at a personal level.