Legend has it that the gods once drowned man for making too much noise. According to the story, the Babylonian god Eulil, like a minister of justice, prosecuted man for his sins. "The sins of mankind have not decreased, but increased. Their noises have stirred my anger." The prosecution won its case and the gods decided to drown a noisy mankind—more than 4,000 years before the advent of noisy trucks and jets. Thus the Babylonians explained the Great Flood.
But modern lawmakers, more lenient than those ancient noise abatement gods, let the noisemakers go free. In the eyes of our government we, the public, the people who consume, who produce, who pay the taxes and make the personal sacrifices necessary for our nation's survival, are not worthy of a quieter city, suburb, farm, school, or hospital. Not if it means disturbing the manufacturer and operator of noisy machines. The problem is not so much how to fight City Hall, but why it should be necessary to fight City Hall in the first place.