Competitive Enterprise Institute | 1899 L ST NW Floor 12,
Washington, DC 20036 | Phone: 202-331-1010 | Fax: 202-331-0640
The Competitive Enterprise Institute formally requests that the
National Park Service designate Times Beach, Missouri a National
Historic Landmark. Salem, Massachusetts holds a sobering role in
American history for its role as the setting for the infamous
witch trials.1 Likewise, the Whittaker Chambers Farm, in
Westminster, Maryland, was designated as a Historic Landmark
partly for its role in the "Red Scare" of the 1950's.2 Both
sites act as constant reminders of how hysteria can drive out
rational discussion. The lesson of these episodes is that when
irrationality infects both popular belief and government policy,
the result is tragedy and waste on a massive scale.
Unfortunately, recent scares over chemical threats -- which were
later found to be either groundless or wildly exaggerated --
demonstrate that we have not learned this lesson very well at
all. Examples abound: the unproven heal