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Contributors
Viewpoints
from various contributors to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Updated when available.
Sunday, March 4, 2001
Have we become afraid to take risks?
It seems that Professor Grady Price Blount (Viewpoints Page, Feb. 28) is against taking some degree of risks in that he believes that development of the Packery Channel and the area surrounding it to be too dangerous.
No doubt there is a good deal of wisdom and perhaps many historical facts to back up his position.
There are, however, a mountain of reasons to proceed with the Packery Channel and island development projects.
Most of these reasons have been spelled out in the Caller-Times and other publications many times in the past. They include jobs, development of a larger tax base, increased recreational facilities, fresher sea water in the bay systems, increased business opportunities, and so on.
It should be pointed out, however, that the ground floor basis of Professor Blount's opinion (don't do it because there may be risks) has pre-existed nearly every worthwhile development and progressive enterprise that have been the basis for the birth, growth and prosperity of this nation.
Let's consider the risks involved in creating and populating this country. The first would-be settlers of the North American continent were wiped out several times before the first successful colony was developed. Indians, disease, starvation, lack of shelter, distance from civilization - were all good reasons not to take the risk.
Did our founding fathers quail at the thought of taking on the strength and might of the British armed forces when thinking of declaring our independence?
Did the pioneers of the 1800s fail to assume the known risks of populating and developing the West because of the threats involved?
How could the settlers of Texas have ever gotten the courage to take on the Mexican army to establish their freedom?
On a local level, there would not be a city of Corpus Christi had not people been willing to face the threats of war, bandits, storms, floods and poverty. There probably would not be a Texas A&M Univeristy-Corpus Christi where it is, on an island subject to flooding, had not its developers been willing to risk some of their wealth.
Or, while we are thinking about it, what about the state of Florida? Almost all of the entire state was a disease infested swamp buffeted by annual hurricanes. Would there be a Florida today without many people believing that it could be developed, even though there were overwhelming risks involved.
What about Packery? Are the citizens of the Coastal Bend willing to take a relatively small risk for a greater gain? The answer should be obvious. Port Aransas has been practically wiped out many times by hurricanes and high tides, but it is still there and growing. South Padre Island is subject to the same threats. Should South Padre Island not have been developed? There are risks taken every day we get out of bed. Let us not be overcome by them.
(Charles R. Porter, Rockport, graduated from Corpus Christi High School in 1940, the University of Texas Law School in 1948, was a senior founding member of the law firm of Porter, Rogers, Dahlman and Gordon. He retired in 1992.)
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© 2001Corpus Christi
Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper.
All rights reserved.
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