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09/07/2005 01:07:39 PM · #1 |
I just have to get this off my chest. This is a rant. This is not a condemnation of anyone, merely a suggestion. This is not meant to try to abridge anyone's freedom of speech or keep anyone from voicing an opinion. I just have to get this out. I am aware that I am as guilty of doing some of this as the next person, so please don't point it out to me.
This is not meant to offend, but if you are offended by it, perhaps you should look more closely at yourself rather than pinning the blame somewhere else.
For those of you who have already followed the suggestions to come, thank you.
STOP BIT**ING ABOUT WHOSE FAULT IT ALL IS!!
Save the bickering and whining for when it's all over. Save the allegations and investigations and finger pointing for a time when all the living have been rescued and the dead retrieved. Take all the time and energy you're spending on complaining about the government and who did or didn't do what when and use that time and energy to HELP the people that need help.
Quit with the paranoia and the political BS and the racial/class/whatever conspiracy theories already. There will be plenty of time for retribution against whatever entities need it later. Those people and those institutions will still be around. The people that need help now may not be.
The past cannot be changed, and the present needs all the help it can get.
More than anything else this is (or should be) about the people who lived in a once beautiful region. This is about people who have literally lost everything - houses, material goods, friends, family members - to an unstoppable force of nature.
It's very easy to sit back and point fingers. I just don't understand why so very many people feel like pointing fingers will fix anything. In the days and weeks to come, after the immediate needs are met, evidence can be examined and retribution and justice can be delivered. For now, I honestly think that our time and efforts can be put to much better use.
Give money. Give blood. Give the extra food and blankets that you have. Volunteer to help man the phones at a local charity drive. Organize a canned food drive. Help someone displaced by this disaster find a place to live and a job. Open your home if you feel the need. DO whatever you can to help, even if you feel that it might be too insignificant to help.
Save the righteous condemnation for when we have the luxury to indulge in it.
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09/07/2005 01:23:48 PM · #2 |
This article discusses something the government is doing right now that will help a lot of people get some immediate needs met. Wow. :)
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09/07/2005 01:28:20 PM · #3 |
| I'm not offended by your post but just wondering why you assume that those of us who are pointing out or trying to discover what went wrong here aren't also pitching in and helping in an appropriate way. What makes you think that both can't be done at the same time? I have to disagree with your conclusion that the analysis should come at a later time. In fact, the sooner we can discover the flaws in the system, or the incompetents in charge (whichever it may be, or a combination thereof), the better we'll be prepared for the next disaster that will strike us. And who knows when that may be? Perhaps tomorrow. So why wait? |
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09/07/2005 01:43:36 PM · #4 |
I'm not sure if this thread is a result of the following thread, No Photographing the Dead, but if it is I would like to point out who started the thread just mentioned - nbsca7.
Martin has done a tremendous job of being our eyes & ears on what is going on in the gulf region as he lives there himself. I don't always agree with everything that he has to say, but I certainly appreciate the time he's put forth to help keep us informed. With Martin (from what I can tell), you get the good, the bad, and the ugly - but at least it's honest.
I think the following excerpt from one of his postings says a lot about who Martin is as a person.
Originally posted by nsbca7:
I'm heading back down there with a pickup bed full of canned goods, a tent, a few sleeping bags and bottled water at first light. One pickup load won't save the world, but I have to do something. I just hope I'm not getting in the way. |
This excerpt is from one of many threads that Martin has contributed to regarding Katrina: Escape from New Orleans
Sara - I'm not trying to attack your post - I think you've made a very good point...I just want to point out to others of the good that I've seen, and the strong human nature and character I've seen in the likes of people such as Martin.
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09/07/2005 02:01:45 PM · #5 |
This thread is not in response to any specific thread or news article. It's a culmination of all of it. Every time I turn on the TV or the radio or read the news on the 'net it's somebody whining and pointing fingers. I'm just tired of it, and I'm trying not to let myself get dragged down by it all.
I understand the need to try to comprehend why things went wrong. I understand the need to vent frustrations (hence this thread and others like it:) ). I just don't have any other adults around home that I can vent to. My kids are too young for me to want to expose them to more of this than they've already seen, my husband is an over the road truck driver (and thus is not here), and all the other family/friends I can talk to are very contentious and argumentative about this - which is part of what I'm so tired of.
Sigh.
So I post.
(And Judith, I don't assume that you (or anyone else) has done nothing. In fact, in the original post, I thanked everyone who has done something. It's just a nagging feeling that those whine the most tend to do the least. Probably just an overgeneralisation based on past experience. Sorry if I wasn't real clear on that bit.)
Sara
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09/07/2005 02:07:08 PM · #6 |
understood...vent away! ;^)
Message edited by author 2005-09-07 14:07:45.
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09/07/2005 02:12:03 PM · #7 |
| If you are tired of it, do something about it instead of ranting on an insignificant forum (insignificant in the big scheme of things that is). Seems to me to rant as you have is just the same as the ranting you are complaining about. |
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09/07/2005 02:17:39 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Alienyst:
If you are tired of it, do something about it instead of ranting on an insignificant forum (insignificant in the big scheme of things that is). Seems to me to rant as you have is just the same as the ranting you are complaining about. |
Originally posted by saracat:
I just have to get this out. I am aware that I am as guilty of doing some of this as the next person, so please don't point it out to me.
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I know. :)
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09/07/2005 02:18:09 PM · #9 |
I think the problem is that after 9/11 it seemed like we did our business THEN ranted and raved. Remember how much Bill Maher was blasted (and sponsors left!) over saying that Americans were the cowards for sitting back firing missiles and the Taliban was brave for flying into a building? The outrage was loud and clear - don't screw with us in the middle of a crisis.
If he said the same thing, today, it wouldn't make us blink.
Everything on tv is "bush did this wrong" "fema is organized wrong" "fema shouldnt be part of homeland defense" blahblahblah. It isn't just "go do something" it's "shut UP and let's focus on thousands being dead for a LITTLE while!"
I agree with sara - STFU and let us rebuild for awhile. Blip about politics later.
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09/07/2005 02:43:17 PM · #10 |
Good point, mavrik. At that time, people could console themselves with anger at "the axis of evil". An enemy was identified (or invented, depending on your leanings) and hatred was directed.
It seems this time, nobody knows how to vent or in what direction to do so. |
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09/07/2005 03:01:17 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by mavrik:
Everything on tv is "bush did this wrong" "fema is organized wrong" "fema shouldnt be part of homeland defense" blahblahblah. It isn't just "go do something" it's "shut UP and let's focus on thousands being dead for a LITTLE while!"
I agree with sara - STFU and let us rebuild for awhile. Blip about politics later. |
Exactly, everone wants to know what happened and who is to blame. Here is my perspective
1. A Class 4 hurricane slammed into 200 miles of gulf coastline with one major city and coutless other small communities.
2. We can not predict EVERTHING that can possibly happen in this world, so quit the blame game and DO someting - I live in Charlotte NC and yesterday my wife went to a slavation army refugee center and gave away tons of ours and our neighbors' items - straight to poeple fresh off a bus. It was nice, but only a dent in what these folks need. (she gave away 2 strollers and a baby's car seat that we were going to sell, and those were the most needed items!!! Lots of kids and pregnant women in the refugees)
So if you have a refugee center near you start collecting items and call the salvation army to find out where thet are, if not, give some $$$.
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09/07/2005 03:24:50 PM · #12 |
We were supposed to go on vacation in NH last weekend, but felt that it wouldn't be right to "go play" while this was going on. I wanted to do something active and meaningful (beyond donations) to help, so I signed up for a website dedicated to searches for the missing. The idea was that they send you the missing person's name & info, and you search all the various victim/survivors databases to see if you can find these people.
My first search was for a couple missing in Jefferson Parish. I went through 28 databases plus Google and Yahoo, and even tried finding neighbors who might know something. I came up empty, but filed missing persons reports with the Coast Guard and Salvation Army, then called the person who requested the search in California to let them know that I struck out, but would keep trying. ...and that's the last I heard from the website. I never got another name to search. :-( |
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