As many who have succumbed to this temptation know all too well from the "school of hard knocks," it's quite likely there are people seated in the classroom who are a whole lot smarter about some matters than the guy who thinks he's the smartest guy in the classroom.
Poor President Obama learned this lesson the hard way this past week, according to a Washington Post article.
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| A school of very smart salmon |
Speaking at the White House about his new government reorganization plan, President Obama opined that in moving the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration form the Commerce Department to the Interior Department, "all salmon issues would come under one roof." The President touted this as his "favorite example" of government duplication. He said:
As it turns out, the Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in saltwater. Apparently, this all had something to do with President Nixon being unhappy with his Interior secretary for criticizing the Vietnam War.
No business or nonprofit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations....So why is it okay for our government? It's not. It has to change.
The Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget, Jeff Zients, later added:
...fresh and saltwater salmon will be together....It's good news for salmon.
Although The Motley Monk doesn't know much about salmon except how to cook them in a variety of ways, this is great news! On the matter of eliminating unnecessary duplication in government, The Motley Monk agrees wholeheartedly with President Obama and his minions.
However, it ends up that President Obama and his minions aren't the smartest guys in the classroom when it comes to salmon. No, a professor at Stony Brook University and President of the Blue Ocean Institute, Carl Safina, is one of the smartest guys in the classroom when it comes to salmon.
Praising the President's reorganization efforts, Safina wrote in an email:
For two decades, we've been saying that no Commerce secretary will ever understand fish. Natural resources are supposed to be managed in Interior. So, bravo! But the administration people could use one quick lesson about salmon swimmin': Rivers go to the sea. Salmon go upstream for sex and then their babies go downstream for adventure; they go up gravid, and gravity brings them down and out to sea. It's called a run, but actually they swim. It's connected. Simple enough, right?
The problem with the President's commentary as it relates to salmon is that there are not two types of salmon: fresh water and saltwater salmon. The fact is that salmon spend part of their lives in fresh water and part in the sea, which is why federal jurisdiction is divided in this particular matter.
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| "Read my mind, Motley Monk!" |
As The Motley Monk knows all too well, hubris sometimes can lead an individual to believe he's the smartest guy in the classroom.
The antidote? A dose of humility.
The antibiotic when one is riddled with the disease? Public embarrassment, as "the Emperor has no clothes."
As the Washington Post article states in its lead:
Note to President Obama and his staff: Learn a bit of fish biology before mocking the federal government for how it handles salmon.
Ouch!
Let the discussion begin...
To read the Washington Post article, click on the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/expert-to-obama-you-dont-understand-salmon/2012/01/13/gIQAnHrswP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Or refer to him/herself in the 3rd person. Always a charmer! LOL
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