Disaster strikes
The calamity along the coast has gotten me to thinking. I know that everybody and their brother has something to say about the tragedy that has befallen the people along the gulf coast. Everybody has a finger to point at somebody else. The Pres, the mayor of N.O., the FEMA director, the Gov. of LA. Nobody has accepted any sort of responsibility for this. We knew this was possible. The people who live in N.O. know that they're below sea level. I remember talking a lot about the possibility of something like this last year when Ivan was on its way. So if a bunch of 18-25 year old weather students could have foreseen this, why couldn't anybody else?Well, they could, and they did. Nobody wanted to take the steps to prevent it, however. And now look what we're left with. It's terrible, it truly is. I don't want to sit here and point fingers and pick fights, I just want to see some people helping out. And there is truly a lot of that happening. But all the arguments about not helping the poor, not helping the blacks, I have a hard time discounting. When 9/11 occured, over 500,000 people were evacuated from Manhattan Island in a matter of hours. One man, the commander of the Coast Guard for the area was responsible for all of this. There was no talk of needing permission, of local officials turning boats away, of people being given DVDs with instructions to leave, of the poor being left behind. Everybody got the hell out of dodge. The fact that we have seen so many issues, so many roadblocks to getting these poor, unfortunate souls out of N.O. is criminal. I think that everybody shares the blame, though. The local officials, the state officials, the federal officials. They're civil servants. That means that they are there to serve the people. As of yet, all I have seen is a bunch of petty bickering about whose fault it is. You know what, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!!!! Get the survivors the hell out of there first. Then we'll start impeaching people for criminal negligence and willful endangerment and start throwing their asses in jail.
That's just me, though.
posted by WunEyedDog @ 11:43 AM
5 Comments:
i tend to do the finger pointing as well, but obviously there are bigger issues right now. i suppose i would point a finger or two as the bus passed my house on its way to the hotel to get the tourists. i might point a finger at the people who report unconfirmed reports of helicopters being fired on. then again i might just sit down on my roof and cry.
i think one thing about 9/11 that was different is we had somewhere to direct our anger. we had someone to hate and someone to blame. that galvanized us. mother nature doesn't make a very good enemy. she always wins.
FD - I agree, the biggest difference here to me is the lack of somebody stepping up and doing something (and the money of the victims, but that's a whole other rant). There have been some people doing amazing things to rescue people on the small scale, but everybody in charge is just passing the buck.
SV - There is an element of helplessness in trying to deal with natural disasters. But we don't need an enemy to hate for us to help our fellow man in a crisis. I guarantee though, that the survivors in New Orleans will not get $2.3 million dollars apiece from the federal government.
i agree that we shouldn't have to have an enemy to hate. i just think that's why everyone was so "together" after 9/11. people seem to thrive on the us vs them scenario.
It's a pretty popular theme (see new post).
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