The George W. Bush Sewage Treatment Plant

The City of San Francisco may be renaming its sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush - as an insult to him, of course. To show their contempt and demonstrate their smug sense of superiority. San Francisco is the only city that had a ballot referendum to allow a uniformed police officer to carry a ventriloquist's dummy on his beat.

George W. Bush should attend the renaming ceremony to give a speech. If I may be sold bold, A speech along the following lines:

"To the good people of San Francisco, I am here to thank you for the honor of having this new sewage treatment facility named in my honor. The people who work here, day in and day out, perform a vital public service in regard to public health and the prevention of communicable diseases. The health and vitality of the people of San Francisco, the millions of tourists who visit this fine city every year, the marine life in the waters in and around San Francisco Bay, and the local, state and national economies are dependent on the efficient operation of this plant and other plants just like it across this great nation."

"There was a time when the size of a city - a health city - was limited by the ability of the local environment to absorb human and animal waste generated inside the city. When the city passed those limits, the human population therein became subject to those diseases whose names still strike dread in people - diseases such as cholera, diptheria, ..." Diseases that were a major threat to the people of San Francisco after the Great Earthquake."

"At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the City of Chicago was identifying the major problems that its continued growth would present to the people - one problem was the every increasing amount of manure created by horses used for transportation and by the cows used for milk and meat by Chicago families. As we all know, that cities fouled by animal waste never became a problem because of an unintended consequence of the invention of the automobile industry. By comparison, the American cities of the 21st Century would seem safe and clean to a person of the 19th Century."

"In the past century, human civilization has made great strides in fighting disease and extending the life expectancy of humanity. Advancements in medicine have conquered so many diseases and so many illness that plaques and pestilences that once ravaged humanity are nothing more than a footnote in our history books - not obliterated, perhaps not conquered, but certainly contained."

"But these strides would not have been possible if all the resources of medicine, all of the efforts of doctors, nurses, medical professionals, and public health workers were committed to fighting those old communicable diseases of black plague, cholera, typhus, yellow fever, malaria and other diseases. It is the containment of those diseases that have allowed our nation, our people, to pour its resources, time and energy to dealing with AIDS, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and other diseases. We only have the ability to fight these emerging diseases because of the efforts of civil engineers, public health departments, and the people who work in this building day in and day out. They keep the bad bugs at bay for the benefit of us all."

"These workers are the reason why so many of you today are alive and in good health. The diseases that would otherwise kill and cripple so many in this community are removed and eliminated on an industrial scale. These workers are the reason why you have a reasonable expectation of living 20 - 30 - 40 years longer than your great-grandparents. These workers deserve our thanks and our gratitude for the very necessary work they do every day - it's not glamorous, it's not easy, it's not clean - but it is a necessary job."

"The next time the people of San Francisco are seated at the local Starbucks, drinking their coffee while talking how they are going to save the world, the should ask themselves who is there to keep them alive and healthy? It is the fine men and women who work in this building. They deserve our thanks and our gratitude."

"Please, everyone stand and let's give an rousing Standing-O to the workers of the George W. Bush Waste Treatment Plant."


Imagine how torn the protesters would be - waiting to protest his every word but constrained
by their big government view. Wanting to show contempt for Bush but not wanting to show contempt for their own city employees.

This would turn their show of contempt into a symbol of good government. If they act like petulant children by showing their contempt for a former president who is there to honor public workers, then the nation would have reason to refine an opinion of the San Francisco liberal.