Are we taking proper safety precautions?

Driving past a local woman's house several years ago, I read this sign on her front door: "Read the Bible. It'll scare the hell out of you."

The truth of that succinct statement elicited momentary chuckles, but local folks drove past, laughed and forgot her sign. Then, for some reason, it flashed across my mind recently as I viewed a "Sixty Minutes" TV report which showed our extreme vulnerability to the World Wide Web that apparently connects most of the world's computers.

This report did not mention the hereafter, but it was the scariest thing I've ever heard about conditions in the world where we live today.

To summarize bluntly, foreign spies from many nations have hacked into our Internet secrets. By pressing computer keys, they could wreak havoc with our electrical gridwork, our defense system or even our banks.

It's easier than you think. An illegal computer command could turn off the cooling systems on the huge generators that manufacture our electricity. The generators would overheat, destroy themselves ... and our lights would go out.

Anyone who has suffered through the power outages caused by Kansas storms knows what that means -- no lights, no refrigeration, no TVs, no computers and even the gas heater doesn't warm us because it has an electric fan and a thermostat.

We who live in the middle of the United States like to think that we're independent, free from the constraints of the urban areas, and relatively self-sufficient.

We aren't.

If those huge generators, mentioned above, really were destroyed, where would our U.S. companies buy replacements? Actually, from a non-American manufacturer after a wait of several months.

Even our money isn't entirely safe. According to this CBS report, the FBI is investigating the Internet theft of more than $100 million from banks around the world.

These are only two examples that were cited by this frightening report. We won't go into what an enemy could do to our defense system, because that's almost unthinkable.

True, our officials are aware of the threat, and intricate systems have been devised to foil the foreign governments and private groups that regularly read our most important secrets.

But, at this point, a "worldwide" web for sharing all information seems to be the worst kind of folly. Neither the Defense Department nor any other crucial government agency should be linked to everyone in the world.

I like computers as much as you do, and I occasionally search the Internet. As for banking, it was neat, some years ago, when I bought gifts at a store in Paris, France, using my Kansas credit card -- an amazing transfer of credit information.

Today, that's ancient history. Almost everyone seems to be hooked into the Internet. Every 10-year-old carries a hand-held device that will download tons of music and information from thin air.

But there are logical limits to everything. A "worldwide web" defies all logic. Didn't they ever hear of plural -- such as in "webs"? We've vaguely heard that several Internet connections already are available in addition to the "www" that is so familiar.

But it should be absolutely impossible for spies in Moscow or Beijing to tap into U.S. defense secrets. They should not be connected in any way.

So, if strangers half a world away could destroy our lifestyle, it's obvious we're not self-sufficient. We're vulnerable in ways we can't even imagine.

Even though we have the technology to build our own products and grow our own food, we know billions of foreign-made articles are sold in the U.S. every year, along with large amounts of foreign food.

So we've become vulnerable to diseases we don't have locally. At least, scare reports about infections occasionally are reported. We already know lead paint was applied to imported toys. It makes one wonder if foreign factories are making the H1N1 flu vaccine, and how well they are regulated.

Well, as somebody said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Maybe. Anyhow, it makes no sense to live in constant dread, even though reports indicate about only 10 percent of our imports are inspected. While I long for the days when most of our products were American-made, some risks are acceptable and some are not.

Whatever you might think about that, it's the height of folly to link all of this nation's crucial defense and governmental information into a network that foreign nations can hack and read. That's stupidity of the worst kind and, if this CBS report is true, our government apparently is guilty of serious blunders.

Darrel Miller lives near Downs in rural

Osborne County and is a retired weekly

newspaper editor.