People get the leadership they deserve

Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas

Sunday, May 23, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.

About the time that Ronald Reagan was spouting deregulation and the right wing was denying evolution, climate change and most anything scientific, I had become a sport scuba diver. My favorite dive site was the John Pennekamp Park off of Key Largo, Fla.

The live coral reef at Pennekamp is breathtaking. Millions of multicolored sea creatures lurk in, swim around, and hang suspended over the many shapes of live coral. Warm, pristine water with 150 feet of visibility surrounds it all.

A diver is aware of his vulnerability in this environment. Water is heavy and we have no gills for breathing. Like the coral, though, our lives are dependent upon the oceans and also like the living coral, we can only survive within a few degrees of temperature.

Many of the world’s live coral reefs are dying because of pollution. Now, as I write this Thursday, an oil slick from an offshore platform could be headed for the Florida Keys. The underwater Eden is being threatened much as our own environment is being threatened by our use of fossil fuels.

It is said that greed and a lack of regulation contributed to the oil leak. If so, it is clear that businesses cannot regulate themselves effectively and that if a disaster can happen, it probably will.

Above water in the United States, there is political anger. “Throw out the big-government Democrats,” they say, and “Bring back the small government of Ronald Reagan!” Humans depend on their brains for survival. Perhaps we are not fit enough.