How we failed New Orleans...
First read this
Then read this
And now you understand why i wrote this on a forum I go to:
"Well, lets see. IMHO, it would appear that the problem we are having is that you have a bunch of people who had nothing to start with. They get told "GET THE FUCK OUT!". But, they have no money, no real mode of trasportation, nothing to get them from point A to point B. They can recall all the times that the coasts of the country got hit harder and survived. So, they stay. They go to the dome and can't get in becasue anyone that could afford more than the Nike express is already in line. Oh, and they are searching people, which makes the entry time that much longer. not gonna make it there. So, you hide. they hide and they hope and they pray to whatever god they choose. And, they make it. And, besides the jackasses trying to make off with non-essential goods from outlying areas, they now have to fight for what they can find. because help and order was not available directly after. Here it is 4 days later, and help is just now arriving. Not exactl enough help for every still. just something... If you have a wailing hungry baby, or a beloved that is two meals and a glass of fresh water away from being departed, you're damn right that you'll start fighting for the right to survive. When the only potable water is available by hook or by crook, and no one is there to even pretend to meter it out, then some people live and drink and other people.... don't. It's unfortunate, but one of the biggest parts of human society is us and them. And when life and death hang in the balance, that division is magnified, amplified, made to bring forth every little bit of nastiness that lingers in all of us. How could this have been prevented? Asside from some policy changes to make that area less vulnurable to nature, start by spending every available resource to drop food, water, and people to that area. MRE's and some water coulda done a whole to to keep this are under control. My post game critisisms are confined to the two days following. That's all it would have taken. Some man power and some MRE's and some water, maybe some show of force to get people in the right headspace, and things go over better. And here's the fucked up part. There was warning. WARNING! people fucking knew. There was enough time to get some food in bags, some water in bottles, and some people to meter it out..."
We failed that whole region in a LOT of ways. But we failed them most in disaster recovery. It's bad enough we didn't do anything proactive. But we didn't do anything reactive either. It only takes 4 days to get help to an absolutely destroyed area of our country when there is a sickness in the machine. I say that sickness isn't just Bush. That sickness is this ideology that science is secondary to ideals. That the facts are outranked by belief. The sickenss lies not in the man, but the people who empowered him. The sickness is US America. Us. We, the people, are not sound. We are not healthy. We are not acting as we should. We have stopped caring about what happens within our borders. We have said it's ok to stretch ourselves thin to cover the world in red white and blue. We have ok'd the gutting of a whole lot of things we still count on being there. We have done this through both action and inaction. We have done with every vote cast. And with every vote not cast. We have done it by trying with all our might to believe that the status quo is OK. America is ailing. America is slowly eating it's future to protect it's present. I've heard people blame Bush for a lot. I've heard people blame everyone and everything they can for what is ailing us. I, for one, don't blame Bush, his cabinet, the good ol' boys network, or any other representation we use to personify "the establishment". No. I blame us. And it sucks to think that. It hurts to say "no, it's our fault". But it is. The voices we have we don't use responsibly. The information available to us we don't accept openly. The only thing more dangerous than the action of a people is the incaction of a people. And, frankly, we have been, as a nation, inactive. America is sick. Very, very sick. And I can't tell you how to heal her. But I can tell you that this is the begining of some very dark times for our country.
Then read this
And now you understand why i wrote this on a forum I go to:
"Well, lets see. IMHO, it would appear that the problem we are having is that you have a bunch of people who had nothing to start with. They get told "GET THE FUCK OUT!". But, they have no money, no real mode of trasportation, nothing to get them from point A to point B. They can recall all the times that the coasts of the country got hit harder and survived. So, they stay. They go to the dome and can't get in becasue anyone that could afford more than the Nike express is already in line. Oh, and they are searching people, which makes the entry time that much longer. not gonna make it there. So, you hide. they hide and they hope and they pray to whatever god they choose. And, they make it. And, besides the jackasses trying to make off with non-essential goods from outlying areas, they now have to fight for what they can find. because help and order was not available directly after. Here it is 4 days later, and help is just now arriving. Not exactl enough help for every still. just something... If you have a wailing hungry baby, or a beloved that is two meals and a glass of fresh water away from being departed, you're damn right that you'll start fighting for the right to survive. When the only potable water is available by hook or by crook, and no one is there to even pretend to meter it out, then some people live and drink and other people.... don't. It's unfortunate, but one of the biggest parts of human society is us and them. And when life and death hang in the balance, that division is magnified, amplified, made to bring forth every little bit of nastiness that lingers in all of us. How could this have been prevented? Asside from some policy changes to make that area less vulnurable to nature, start by spending every available resource to drop food, water, and people to that area. MRE's and some water coulda done a whole to to keep this are under control. My post game critisisms are confined to the two days following. That's all it would have taken. Some man power and some MRE's and some water, maybe some show of force to get people in the right headspace, and things go over better. And here's the fucked up part. There was warning. WARNING! people fucking knew. There was enough time to get some food in bags, some water in bottles, and some people to meter it out..."
We failed that whole region in a LOT of ways. But we failed them most in disaster recovery. It's bad enough we didn't do anything proactive. But we didn't do anything reactive either. It only takes 4 days to get help to an absolutely destroyed area of our country when there is a sickness in the machine. I say that sickness isn't just Bush. That sickness is this ideology that science is secondary to ideals. That the facts are outranked by belief. The sickenss lies not in the man, but the people who empowered him. The sickness is US America. Us. We, the people, are not sound. We are not healthy. We are not acting as we should. We have stopped caring about what happens within our borders. We have said it's ok to stretch ourselves thin to cover the world in red white and blue. We have ok'd the gutting of a whole lot of things we still count on being there. We have done this through both action and inaction. We have done with every vote cast. And with every vote not cast. We have done it by trying with all our might to believe that the status quo is OK. America is ailing. America is slowly eating it's future to protect it's present. I've heard people blame Bush for a lot. I've heard people blame everyone and everything they can for what is ailing us. I, for one, don't blame Bush, his cabinet, the good ol' boys network, or any other representation we use to personify "the establishment". No. I blame us. And it sucks to think that. It hurts to say "no, it's our fault". But it is. The voices we have we don't use responsibly. The information available to us we don't accept openly. The only thing more dangerous than the action of a people is the incaction of a people. And, frankly, we have been, as a nation, inactive. America is sick. Very, very sick. And I can't tell you how to heal her. But I can tell you that this is the begining of some very dark times for our country.
posted by Rook at 9/03/2005 10:02:00 AM
2 Comments:
That's a very well thought-out, articuate commentary. There's not a single point in there I can find any disagreement with. It is OUR fault--even the people who didn't vote for Bush...because we haven't empowered ourselves enough, cared enough, or united enough...we are truly a nation divided...and I don't see it getting any better.
We need leaders who can stop and think, who can be rational, who can not be afraid to change their minds or be open to new ideas and thinking. But alas in these "new times" (note the quotation marks), most of us have agreed to become sheep and follow the herd, to abide by the perception of a status quo, while the world changes around us.
I have a genuine fear for our nation's future.
Wow!
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