We remember where we were the exact moment we learned that hijackers had flown airplanes into the World Trade Center, tumbling its towers in a spectacular display of hate – evil, many would say as the magnitude of the 9/11 terrorist attacks began to sink in – that indelibly scarred the nation’s psyche. That raw, exposed nerve of vulnerability left Americans with sweeping legislation aimed at terrorists who would harm them but would inadvertently – to put the best possible face on the USA Patriot Act – deprive some innocent citizens of some of their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

That’s a glaring example of the problems in public policy born more of emotion than of the essential facts of a situation. There are others, in houses of government at every level. Iowa legislators were able to fend off reinstatement of the death penalty this year after a Cedar Rapids girl was allegedly molested and murdered by a convicted sex offender, but the issue is sure to resurface next year, despite a lack of scientific evidence that capital punishment is a deterrent to such crimes or does anything more than satisfy a thirst for vengeance. And in West Des Moines over the past several weeks, the City Council has been asked to craft logical regulations from emotional arguments over giant retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s plan to build a megastore in the swank Jordan Creek Town Center area.

Bashing Wal-Mart is a national pastime. The world’s largest retailer, it has become an archetype of corporate greed, importing 70 percent of its merchandise from China and paying its 1.2 million domestic employees so poorly that they collectively qualify for $2.5 billion in public assistance annually. But for citizens in one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, and certainly the hottest growth area in Greater Des Moines, to complain that the noise associated with the discount retailer’s proposed 24-hour operation would seriously diminish their quality of life is disingenuous.

In the end, the West Des Moines City Council struck a compromise in form of a proposed ordinance that would require big-box stores to be closed between midnight and 6 a.m., but even that attempt at middle ground may not keep the city out of court. But regardless of the final resolution of the issue, it’s a timely reminder that good law rarely is crafted from emotion.