Mother Nature exposes our softness

I don't think we have the right stuff anymore. We don't know how to cope with inconveniences or how to tough it out when things don't go according to plan. Take this weekend's snowstorm. Washington has never been a city that reacts well to bad weather. Rain sends people into a frenzy here. You would think Washingtonians would be accustomed to foul weather, but they aren't. I lived in this area in 1979 for one year and it was the same deal then as it is now. No one can drive in anything other than perfect conditions in Northern Virginia, the district or Maryland. Schools close even if there is a forecast of a few inches of snow. And federal offices...well, forget about it. Biggest wimps in the country.

I wonder what it is about Washington that causes panic whenever it snows? Is it because metro-D.C. is a region with people from all over the globe, many of whom might not have ever seen snow? Or is it just a town with too much entitlement?

As I traveled about today, traffic was thick, restaurants and stores were full, and parking lots had very few empty spaces. It appears all those people who couldn't get to school or work found a way to get to other more fun places. It was particularly noteworthy to me because over the three decades of my working life, which ended abruptly last year, I didn't miss work because of bad weather. I drove through snowstorms at all hours of the night and took my responsibilities seriously. I didn't feel better or more special than anyone else. I just felt I was paid to show up at the office and not take the day off to stroll around the mall. It was on me as to how I got to work in bad weather. Just part of being an adult and earning a paycheck. Not everyone I worked with subscribed to my values and saw snow in much the same way a fourth-grader would -- as an opportunity.

I am guessing that people in Albany or Buffalo deal with snow that is far worse than what the mid-Atlantic saw this weekend. And they deal with it several times a year. They go to work. They go to school. They don't whine nonstop on around-the-clock television news reports. I am thinking that folks in Killington, Vt., somehow find their way to their jobs at the ski lodge offices, restaurants, shops and hotels there. And our friends farther north in Canada probably think Americans are totally lame when it comes to coping with bad weather.

We've gotten soft. We panic about everything. We worry about more 9/11's every time a plane soars a little too low. We get sick over the idea of the cable TV going out during Survivor.

Our sense of entitlement and unfounded fear has no bounds. Americans fall apart if the fireworks are rained out on the Fourth of July or a sale item is sold out the day before Christmas. People in the media turn every death from H1N1 into a sensationalized national catastrophe, as if things like "The Plague" never existed. One beheading in the Middle East or a kidnapping in North Korea equals the entire media coverage of World War I.

What are we going to do if a real emergency occurs? Can we handle it? What if an asteroid hits Kansas City and kills 1,000 times more people than 9/11? When the "big one" finally slices through California, will our entire country fall apart? How about if we have to go to war against a real nation with a real military and not just a cult? Could we man up against China? I doubt it.

We better get comfortable with the idea of hardships and toughen up a bit. I see troubling days ahead. If we stop sticking our heads in the sand we might be able to avoid some problems, but not all. Many experts agree that we will get hit by a nuke one day. A lot of people feel the deficit is going to lead to class warfare or worse. Some think factory farming is going to sprout viruses that wipe out millions.

It's a shame that in order to regain perspective and backbone we're going to have to face something much more challenging than a foot or two of snow.