THE PYRAMIDS, AND OTHER THOUGHTS

BY DAN MILLER
February 13, 2006

When I think about the Great Pyramids of Egypt, it always seems to trigger other abstract thoughts.

The other day, some friends were telling my wife about their planned trip to Egypt to see the pyramids.
Our 7-year old sat nearby, listening quietly, then -- without even looking up -- she observed that she was pretty sure the pyramids were no longer there.
She explained how they were very old, and had gone away by now.

She was almost right.
A mention of the pyramids usually brings to mind those 3 big ones near the Sphinx in Egypt.
But there were actually more than 100 pyramids built in Egypt alone.
Thousands of years later, most of them are -- in fact --gone.

But the Great Pyramid of Khufu still stands.
It was the biggest construction project ever undertaken by humankind, and was obviously one of the most durable structures ever built.

Think of it.... an estimated 2,300,000 stones, most weighing between 2 and 3 tons, and most chiseled and cut into workable shapes.
The sheer magnitude of the project is unimaginable.... and would be even with today's modern machinery.

It's always been my theory (based on nothing but personal theorizing) that the real reason these massive structures were built was not -- as we've always learned -- simply to provide elaborate tombs for the kings and pharaohs.

The real reason may have been a way to provide lucrative and dependable work for generations of Egyptians in that ancient society.

There were millions of people who needed employment.
They needed responsibility.
Generations of families needed a sense of purpose and pride.

There were no WalMarts to employ the masses...... they didn't have car dealerships, or television stations, or fast food restaurants, or computer companies, or local government to keep the people gainfully employed.

Fast forward 4,000 years to the United States in the 1930s.
When unemployment was spinning out of control, Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Those programs provided work for more than 10,000,000 Americans -- clearing slums, repairing roads, parks, schools, hospitals, airfields etc.
There were even projects to provide employment for out-of-work artists.
It gave Americans a psychological boost and decreased unemployment dramatically.

Wait a minute.
Here we are in 2006....
Unemployment hovers above 5% in the U.S. (even higher in New Orleans)....
We have a great American city in ruins....
We have hundreds of communities and towns in terrible distress along the Gulf coast....

Why not a WPA-like program to rebuild the Gulf coast?
It would create employment.... pride of accomplishment.... good wages for desperate workers....
and a great city could come back strong.

Just a passing thought.

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