Population Control

Whenever we hear about a shortage of food or clean drinking water we look for the cause. When disease spreads rapidly due to overcrowded conditions and poor sanitation, we begin look for someone to blame for the serious threat to human life that always occurs. Not long after we begin to hear the chants and drumbeats of the few who believe that population control is the best solution to this constantly reoccurring problem.

Naturally, since I never want to be part of the solution they propose, I stopped and asked myself if I have ever experienced these things that caused them to panic and propose such extreme measures. One by one I begin to understand those moments when population control crossed my mind.

My experience with drought was traumatic. Thirsty on a hot summer day I opened the lid of the ice chest at a party one party and discovered someone had beaten me to the last beer. Just for a moment I contemplated population control.

I have experience famine numerous times in my lifetime. The first real memory was as a younger member of a large family and the struggle for the last pork chop on the platter at dinnertime. Later on I experienced it again as a parent of teenagers with insatiable appetites. It’s true, both incidents triggered thoughts of population control: rapid, decisive, with no mercy.

Recalling my last exposure to disease, I began to mellow with age and begin to understand the human population problem a little better. After contracting a virus due to overcrowded conditions and poor sanitation, I was forced to rethink my views of population control as a solution.

What do you suppose could possibly cause such a radical shift in my thinking? I caught the flu virus. The overcrowded condition was a big hug and kiss from a grandchild. The unsanitary conditions were forgetting to cover their sneeze with a handkerchief, and wiping their runny nose on the back of their hand.  Population control never crossed my mind.

In every case, my droughts have been a temporary condition and not an excuse to limit someone else’s happiness. My famines have always been just a problem getting the food from Point A to Point B and not a real shortage. My diseases have been easily controlled by education and training. And, natural disasters come and go to remind us all that we are just a small part of a larger world.

My last natural disaster has caught me completely by surprise. We call it old age, and it is wreaking havoc on my plans to live forever. Faced with rapidly diminishing natural resources (my youth, energy, vitality, and health), conservation and preservation of what remains seems like a much better option than euthanasia. It would seem that Mother Nature really has this situation under control, and there is no need for us to interfere.