That’s how I often think of Texans. In one of my medical newsfeeds today, I read an item about a survey of Texans addressing their anticipated (personal) life expectancies. The majority of Texans expected to live to age 80 or beyond. This is interesting since US life expectancy has actually decreased since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. In fact, US life expectancy was already in decline earlier than that due to what some call deaths of despair – death by overdose, chronic alcohol use, and suicide.
Today’s Texans can expect, on average, 74 years of life. So, expecting to make it to 80 is optimistic for sure. The average American will probably fare no better than the average Texan. On the bright side, having already reached age 73, my odds of making it to 80 are a good deal better than those of most young adults who first have to make it to 73 before than can have a good shot at 80 or beyond. Nonetheless, optimism springs eternal.
My SIL in Pennsylvania sent me a news item today that concerned the transfer of train tanker cars filled with two million gallons of contaminated water from the Ohio train derailment site being transferred to Deer Park in the Houston area. There is a company there that specializes in injecting toxic materials into a deep well. Typically, such injection wells pump toxic pollutants into porous strata that lie between two impermeable layers. The idea is that the noxious materials will be entombed there as if they were oil – pooled in a sarcophagus, as it were.
I think that this is a particularly pernicious form of optimism. It is an optimism that potentially sacrifices the health of future generations for the safety and comfort of the living.
Talk about pro-life! What could possibly go wrong?