Hi neighbors. There was an article in the newspaper recently about the New Madrid Seismic Zone and what the scientists were saying about when the "big one" will hit.

I haven't taken any geophysicist classes. I can't even pronounce that word well.

I don't pretend to understand how pictures from satellites can tell anyone that part of Missouri is moving.

There are certainly more learned minds than mine that read this information and put together their own predictions.

I'm basing my pronunciation on a well known (although probably not scientific) fact called, it can't happen till it can cause the maximum problems.

For instance, Missouri has some of the worse bridges in the United States. Will an earthquake come along and destroy these bridges that should be demolished? I don't think so.

Money will have to be spent to destroy the old bridges and much more money will be spent to build new ones.

As I was traveling in Kansas City last week, returning home from a trip to Iowa, I again noticed all the great road work going on there. Massive overhead highways carried four lanes of traffic. Huge retaining walls held back the earth that would otherwise tumble onto the roadways.

There are still many, many road construction programs scheduled for St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and even Joplin.

Based on the theory that "it can't happen till it can cause the maximum problems," the big New Madrid fault line can't kick up trouble until after all this expensive construction work is finished.

Instead of spending so much time and money on scientific examination of the fault line by well-meaning scientists; I submit that we would be safer to just keep building overpasses, cloverleaves, bridges and retaining walls.

Our safety lies in the Winchester House Theory.

The Winchester House, as you probably know, was under continual construction for years following a seance where Mrs. Winchester was told the spirits were upset with her; and to prevent further problems, she should keep building her house. I don't know how well it worked for her, but, hey, we have folks who need jobs and what can it hurt? I'm certain that once the construction work is finished, the big one will hit and tear it all up.

Another thing I don't understand is suicide bombers. Who can think that blowing themselves up serves a purpose that benefits anyone? I wonder who convinces these people that walking or driving into a crowded area and exploding themselves is a good thing. How would you go about that? And can any belief system or political system survive having a large portion of its followers kill themselves? Where are the responsible adults when young kids are being indoctrinated into believing their ticket to heaven lies in self-destruction? How much of their sacrifice is about religion anyway? Where in the Koran is it written that a person who doesn't like how the world is going should strap explosives on themselves and blow up innocent people? All this mind-bending starts at an early age and for a purpose. Looking for weapons of mass destruction? Check out the school rooms. The blind following of any one leader has to be instilled before logical thinking can be processed in my opinion.

Saddam Hussein knew that. That's why children had to thank "their father Saddam Hussein" for everything they had -- out loud in the classroom.

Hitler knew that, too. He was fond of his own image being displayed at every corner too.

Brainwashing children isn't a new practice. It has been proven to work well.

How many of us carry ideas and assumptions that we may not even recognize as anything but fact? Usually these are ideas we absorbed as children and we have never thought of questioning their validity.

We can only hope these are harmless notions that won't be displayed as anger toward other people. But they are there -- waiting for the chance to surface.

Perhaps we can never understand suicide bombers or what drives them to kill themselves and others.

They can be reminders to all of us who deal with young, impressionable minds to be careful -- and to be kind. Idle words that come too easily to the tongue are probably words you've repeated often without thinking of what they actually represent. It's a terrible thing to pollute a mind.