Cleanliness for public health

As a young child, I was taught by my mother to wash my hands, take a bath, brush my teeth and wear clean clothes. She worked diligently to maintain a clean home and clean children. She explained that keeping yourself and your home clean was important for your health and other people’s health, as well.

As I grew older I came to appreciate her wisdom and endeavored to practice the habits of cleanliness. As an adult I recognized this principle in practice in various other ways with sanitary sewers, potable water, garbage pickup, health inspections, vaccinations and other civilized customs to keep us all healthy.

I am amazed and perplexed at the many conservative political and business leaders of our country and their supporters who cannot understand this simple truism and apply it to our air and water as well. Just as clean hygiene is necessity to our personal health so is clean air and water.

Are these people willfully ignorant or worse? Is it sheer avarice and selfishness that make them deny the simple wisdom of the good book, that cleanliness is next to godliness?

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Cleanliness for public health."