Appendix A

"Hondurans are smarter and more industrious than Americans and will eventually dominate the world" - this is purely a personal theory I developed after being in Honduras for a short period of time. It naturally includes my experience living in America and watching CNN.

The theory is simply a declaration that the "Survival of the Fittest" is still a reality in Honduras whereas, in America, idiots can and do live and thrive.

In America, we put guard rails around everything, we have handrails on everything, we have stop signs to tell us to stop, we have yield signs to tell us to yield, we have stripes in the road to tell us where to drive, we have traffic lights to provide electronic assistance for those who can't deal with "Who got to the intersection first?", we have doctors to tell us what medicine to take, we have pharmacists who won't sell us drugs without a Doctor's permission. And so on and so on and so on. It seems that there just isn't any serious penalty (i.e. death) for being stupid. Therefore stupid people continue to live and breath.

In Honduras however they have a delightful maze of open sewer drains, intersections without stop signs, streets without lane stripes, low hanging electrical wire, uncovered water meter holes, sharp daggers on tops of fences and window sills, concrete projections and metal pipes sticking up out of the sidewalks at random locations, electrical conduits pulled loose from buildings, traffic lights without electrical power, cheap food that can kill you, pharmacists that will sell you drugs upon request and even give you injections. In general, in Honduras, if you aren't paying attention to what you're doing, if you aren't alert at all times, "You gonna die Kemosabe!" Failure to do so has severe consequences. Therefore, the Honduran people have grown to be alert and intelligent.

It has been scientifically proven that stupid people tend to have more children. Therefore, in America this group of people will tend to dominate the populace and will even begin to emerge as leaders of people even more stupid. Recent events bear this out. In Honduras, since the stupid people (including intelligent people with slow reflexes) are continuously culled from the populace, the more intelligent people (especially those with fast reflexes) have an opportunity to grow at their naturally slower pace.

The only question is: Is it too late for America? Can we reverse the trend toward "Dead rat mentality"? The fate of other great civilizations: Greek, Mayan, Atlantis, Roman, Druids, Egyptian, Cherokee, etc. does little to instill hope.

(Of course, this begs the issue as to whether or not intelligence has anything to do with anything.)