Facts Schmacks. Stop confusing me!

By Joseph Walther

I swear! Am I missing something, or are huge numbers of people overly captivated by the intellectualization of simplicity? Of course, you are probably more familiar with its technical term: mental masturbation.

Just tune into any of the nationally broadcast cable TV talking heads on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. It’s all they seem to do. Radio talk shows, both nationally syndicated and the local fare do their part, too. And, apparently, we’re tuning in to listen in droves.

Conversely, we also have a flair for oversimplifying complexity. Perpetual, mind-numbing detail is a hallmark of the intellectualization of simplicity. The more of it we get, the more we resent it.

The more the “intellectualizers” drone on with gratuitous detail, the greater the need for the “oversimplifiers” to eliminate it, pertinence notwithstanding. The more some people can replace complexity with simplicity (real or imagined), the easier it becomes to make decisions, stupid or otherwise.

And, in no other endeavors are these activities more prevalent than in our political and community-oriented arenas. Generally, we can invent, and accept as fact, more speculation per factual tidbit than any other society on Earth.

Here are two examples. Both are germane to my home state of Delaware. And, granted, neither of these threaten the foundations of civilization as we know them, but I’ll bet anything you’d like that the same type of nonsense is taking place all over this country.

The first involves a long sitting, United States Senator. The second involves an ongoing war of words over which of two cities, within 30-miles of each other, is more dangerous to live in: Wilmington, DE or Philadelphia, PA.

First, let me explain Delaware’s location on the map because about 90% of the country has no clue. Throughout my extensive travels about the United States, people have proven this by asking if it’s in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

It’s located in neither of these other states. Delaware is that tiny, dangling strip of land hanging down beneath South Eastern Pennsylvania, just west of the Delaware River.

Even though, traditionally, most people have had no idea where Delaware is, now that Senator Joe Biden—our long sitting U. S. Senator—is Barack Obama’s VP candidate, things have changed radically.

Oh, most still have no idea where Delaware is, but EVERYONE now knows Joe Biden. Or, at least they think they do and this applies to the locals in particular.

Right here in good old New Castle County, Delaware, a participant on a popular local forum had typed the words; “Biden’s a draft dodger.” He based this on a small newspaper’s report that Joe Biden had “gone to college” and had “not served in the military.”

This individual took two facts, that Joe Biden went to college and that he had not served in the military, and placed them in tandem, arriving at a highly self-serving conclusion: Joe Biden’s a draft dodger.

He didn’t write; “It seems that Joe Biden’s a draft dodger,” or “Joe Biden may have been a draft dodger.” No! He concluded and wrote that Joe Biden IS, absolutely, a draft dodger.

I’ve known Joe Biden for 54-years. He’s exactly 4-months and 28-days younger than I am. While I disagree with many—most, actually—of his political positions, I’ve always liked him and respected him.

Regardless, the law at the time required all males to register with Selective Service upon reaching the age of 18-years. I complied in June of 1960 and I know, factually, that Joe complied in late November of the same year.

I eventually ended up in Vietnam. However, our draft board—we were under the jurisdiction of the same one—immediately rejected Joe on medical grounds. He was a serious asthmatic, a little factual tidbit that the press had also reported.

But, our intrepid forum participant dismissed this because Joe Biden went on to play sports at Archmere Academy, Joe’s high school alma mater.

Perhaps it was because of his admitted dislike for Liberals or because he’s simply stupid, he inferred that Joe lied about his condition just to avoid the draft and going to Vietnam.

I suspect that this individual’s understanding of how the “draft” worked was non-existent, most probably because he had not yet been born at the time Joe and I registered.

First, it never occurred to him that before a draft board legitimately rejected anyone for medical reasons, at least two independent board-certified physicians had to verify the conditions.

Second, he seems not to have any understanding of the difference between various medical conditions that would disqualify an individual from military service and the ones that would disqualify an individual from participating in high school sports.

Chronic asthma is a serious condition. But with adequate precautions in place, sufferers CAN play high school sports. However, it would be virtually impossible to put those same precautions in place under military conditions.

I tell you this as a combat veteran of numerous night patrols throughout that jungle hellhole. The last thing I would have needed was an asthmatic going into a loud, convulsive, oxygen-deprived wheeze.

We’d have had a better chance of survival had we simply fired a flare into the night sky and yelled, “Yoo-hoo! Here we are… over here behind this tree.”

The bottom line is that Joe’s condition was legitimate and severe enough to rule out military service. He was not the only one rejected and he was not a draft dodger.

Jack Kemp received a medical deferment because of a “bad” knee. If you’ll recall, this did not prevent the former nine-term Republican Congressman and Vice Presidential nominee from playing professional football in the NFL for 8-years.

I never considered Jack Kemp a draft dodger, anymore than I considered the many that applied for and received legitimate college deferments as draft dodgers.

OK, now let’s turn our attention to another local matter, a discussion over which city is more dangerous to live in: Philadelphia, PA or little “ole” Wilmington, DE.

The conversation was between two Wilmingtonians, both avid haters of Philadelphia and its politics. Both insisted that living in Philadelphia was more dangerous than living in Wilmington.

As evidence of this, both tossed out accurate statistics involving the number of murders in both cities for the years 2006, 2007, and to date in 2008. However, I’m going to use only one year to make MY point. The reason will become obvious.

In 2006, there were 406 homicides in Philadelphia but only 23 homicides in Wilmington. If you use only absolute numbers, you’ll run—not walk—away from Philadelphia as fast as you can.

The problem is that absolute numbers do not accurately depict comparative safety because they do not account for varying population sizes. In order to achieve this, we need a common means of comparing. The most common is occurrences per 100,000 inhabitants.

To make sense of it, we need to know the relative population sizes of the cities we want to study. In 2006, Philadelphia, PA was home to about 1,500,000 people. In the same year, Wilmington, DE was home to about 70,000 people.

What, therefore, was the murder rate per 100,000 people in Philadelphia in the year 2006 as compared to that of Wilmington, DE for the same period? Here’s the arithmetic involved.

First, divide the population size by 100,000. Then divide this result into the number of murders for the reporting period.

For Philadelphia, the numbers are 1,500,000 divided by 100,000. You’ll get the number 15. Divide the 406 murders by 15. You’ll arrive at a murder rate of around 27/100,000 (that’s 27 murders for each 100,000-city inhabitants).

Do the same calculations for Wilmington, DE. Divide the city population of 70,000 by 100,000. The answer is 0.70. Then, divide the number of murders (23) by 0.70. You’ll arrive at an answer of about 33.

Wilmington’s murder rate for each 100,000 inhabitants for the year 2006 was 33 (33/100,000). You can now see that Wilmington was approximately 18% more dangerous than Philadelphia was.

This method of calculation is a more realistic comparison in terms of danger; it’s also a better indicator of a city’s propensity for murder.

For example, if Philadelphia had experienced Wilmington’s rate per 100,000 inhabitants in 2006, that city would have had 495 murders instead of 406.

From another, equally valid angle, if Wilmington, DE had experienced the city of Philadelphia’s rate for the same period, Wilmington would have had 16 murders instead of 23.

And, it’s looking worse for Wilmington for the year 2008. Projecting based on murders reported through July, Philadelphia’s rate will end up at around 21/100,000 while Wilmington’s will end up around 33/100,000.

So based strictly on murder rates, it seems prudent to stay the hell out of Wilmington, Delaware. Whatever the reasons, the inhabitants there appear to be a crankier lot than those in Philadelphia!

Joe Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. You may comment on his column by clicking here.