There is a Difference in the Terms Stupid and Foolish

The telecommunications industry should be protected from lawsuits enabled by foolish people in Congress.

People generally use many terms that they grew up with. The user's meaning of these terms is not always something that Webster's would approve of. Many years ago my wife's grandfather was helping load my car for a trip. As I carried a suitcase out, he asked if I was going to "put that suitcase in the turtle". That question stopped me "dead in my tracks". I then learned that "the turtle" was, for many elderly Texans, the back end of a car where you store things and not necessarily an animal that crawls slowly on the ground.

The misuse of a term can result in many misconceptions. When you tell someone that they are stupid because they took a risk that you advised against, you are misunderstanding the meaning of the word stupid. Stupid actually means without intelligence. The person you are addressing is not without intelligence most likely. We use the word stupid to describe a wide variety of these irresponsible or unreasonable actions that a person does even though they might individually be capable of performing complex tasks.

We rarely use the term foolish, which better describes these irresponsible or unreasonable actions. Very smart nuclear scientists can do something foolish but cannot reasonably be referred to as stupid people. Our universities are crowded with professors who are by no means stupid but are perfectly capable of supporting some very foolish ideas. The point is that very smart people can do very foolish things.

My reason for looking at this difference is the many times that I see people arguing political points on TV. After we lost the twin towers in New York City on 9-11 you would think that no one in their right mind would want to impede the National Security Agency (NSA) in the prevention of more terrorist's attacks and more deaths. This country has very intelligent, very well educated people in Congress who are very aware of the danger involved but are willing to put your life and my life in danger by restricting the telecommunications industry's cooperation in monitoring terrorist activity. Your first thought may be that this impediment to the National Security Agency (NSA) is a "stupid" idea. These people in Congress are not "stupid". They have the intelligence to recognize the danger and the risk.

The problem for this country is that some in Congress are foolish enough to blindly comply with the political thought of the day and in the end put our lives in danger. The telecommunications industry is capable of providing broad technical assistance so long as they are protected from legal harm. When I think of the trial lawyers who are promoting this ability to sue the industry, I think about the gangster who was asked years ago, "Why do you rob banks?" and he replied, "Because that is where the money is". I think it is obvious why some in Congress want to allow trial lawyers to go after the telecommunications industry on this issue. These same foolish people in Congress only have one regret and that is that the rich oil companies cannot provide the same broad technical assistance that the telecommunications companies can.