Mary Henkel Judson is editor and co-publisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at (361) 749-5131 or southjetty@centurytel.net. The topic this week is disasters - both natural and unnatural.

Let's start with natural.

As far as natural disasters go, I'll take hurricanes.

Tornadoes - you don't get much notice. Floods can take you by surprise, too.

Earthquakes strike without notice.

Wild fires don't ring your doorbell, and once inside it's next to impossible to get them to leave.

All of these natural disasters (natural in most cases - wildfires are sometimes the work of man) leave devastation and destruction and cost billions of dollars.

At least with a hurricane you have several days to pack it up and get out of harm's way. We may lose property, but that's just "stuff." Loss of lives in most cases is significantly less than in most other natural disasters.

Those who live on the coast, in "Tornado Alley" or earthquake, flood or wildfire zones know the risk they take by locating there by chance of birth or choice.

Wherever we live, we face risks - and I'll take the risk of a hurricane as the price of living in paradise.

Now, on to unnatural disasters. I'll be the first to admit I'm not an economic expert by any stretch of the imagination. That the failures of some of the country's largest corporations could, without government intervention, create havoc at every socio-economic level, I can understand. That the government sees the need to step in to the

tune of billions (probably trillions when you add it all understand. up), I think I understand.

What I don't understand is that the same sense of emergency does not extend to health care and education - two key factors in the socioeconomic health of this country.

Because health care is not within reach of so many in this country, people end up in emergency rooms to get treatment for the first time for an illness that could have been prevented or at least been kept from becoming an emergency room situation.

We pay for that.

Because we are failing our teachers and children in our classrooms, we are facing drastic dropout rates across the country. By that same failure we are not equipping our children with the skills necessary to adequately provide for themselves and their families (these are the people who end up in the emergency room with an impacted tooth).

We pay for that.

Paying to save corporate America that pays its CEOs obscene amounts of money (don't get me started on that!) is, apparently, an emergency.

We will pay for that.

We are crippling our economy by not insuring a healthy, educated population.

Apparently, that's not an emergency, and we will pay for that.

This is not an endorsement of "national health care" per se. Rather, it is an endorsement of the need to insure that health care is "available" - within financial reach - of every American.

If we did a better job of educating our children (keeping them in school would be a start), they'd have a better chance at landing jobs that would enable them to afford insurance.

It's a vicious cycle, and there is no simple solution.

But if the "guv'ment" looked upon health care and education in the same way it views the financial collapse of corporate America, we just might be able to take care of all three at one time.

Maybe I should run for president. Just kidding!