Timothy Naftali Quotes
We always take acceptable risks in our society.
Timothy Naftali, Political Historian, Director, Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, Speech, International Spy Museum, July 17, 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In this particular case Griffin was referring to manned space flight, but the principle is a general one. Risk can be managed and in many cases minimized, but can never be eliminated completely unless virtually all activity ceases.
He was referring to projects like the ObamaCare website. This was then only the most recent failure of a major IT government project. The IRS has for years been unsuccessful and developing a system for tax filing. And the Defense Department tried to develop a standardized programming language—ADA—that failed miserably despite all the pressure the government put on companies. Microsoft and Google rarely meet their own internal deadlines for development of a major innovative product, and that is typical as there is risk in many parts of a system and further risk as to whether they work together, and then whether they work with heavy use, etc.
Timothy Naftali is a Canadian-American historian who is clinical associate professor of public service at New York University. He has written four books, two of them co-authored with Alexander Fursenko on the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nikita Khrushchev. He is a regular CNN contributor as a CNN presidential historian.
