Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Hurricane Katirna - NOT mud-related

Jazuela · 09-05-2005, 08:15 AM

It's hard, isn't it? To sit in our comfy homes with electricty and running water and watch vidclip after vidclip of devestation in our own back yard. Knowing that as "individual citizens" there is very little we can do, in a direct, active way. I found out I wouldn't be allowed to go to New Orleans, because I lack the training and I am not qualified (you have to be capable of lifting 70 pounds). I would just end up being in the way, regardless of my intentions.

So it's up to us, as individual citizens, to take a step back (since we already ARE back)...toss our emotional reactions to the side if only for an hour or two. Force logic to kick in. And then look again and see what needs to be done from a distance, and where we can fit in to this scene.

Maybe it's how I'm hardwired that makes me think (and write) differently. When faced with crisis, I get weird. The entire scope of the crisis smacks me in the face. I see every single freaking side of the whole thing all at that same time, in a split second, and I have to remove layer upon layer upon layer of data from my brain until all that's left is me, and what I can do about it.

Only after I've done this process (which I'm learning here through your replies is not normal), can I blast out my emotions. Kinda like one of my recent posts where I said if anyone -refuses- to evacuate at this point, to let them rot in their homes.

Harsh, yes. But I could've worded it prettier - sugar-coated it, and said the exact same thing in a different way and I probably would've gotten a bunch of "heck yeah!" posts in response.

As for guns - not for me. I'm a coward and a pacifist to the extreme, and I'd let someone beat the living crap out of me before I ever raised a hand to another person. It's not a moral issue for me. I -should- fight back. I just don't have it in me to do it. And so - I won't be getting a gun to protect myself or my family, "just in case." Guns creep me out and I won't allow one to be in my home. It also isn't the solution. Remember..

All those people had almost a full 24 hours notice to leave. If they were unable, they could've arranged with their neighbors, friends, families. They had time to do this. I wouldn't wish what happened to the victims of the violence on anyone, no one "deserves" it.

But the only people they had control over was themselves. And for whatever reason, they chose inaction, and now they are seeing the results. People who are normally law-abiding citizens killing others with guns, robbing abandoned homes of jewelry in the middle of a 20-foot flood-filled city..with no open pawnshops to sell it to...there's no logic in what happened to -those- looters. Plenty of logic to the junkies who did the same thing - junkies will do anything for a fix, and will do even worse once they realize a fix isn't coming.

Rapes, attacking and shooting rescuers, theft of non-essentials, hoarding of essentials while their neighbors who didn't evacuate when the first orders came before the storm sit on rooftops dying of thirst...this is what's left of New Orleans. This is what those people have been reduced to, regardless of whether or not they were like that in the first place. That's what's left now.

And that image is why I feel as I feel about the whole thing. Help where help will actually do some good. And just forget the rest, it'll take care of itself. Tragic, sad, cold-hearted and horrible to consider - but that is the reality of it, and no amount of sugar-coating will change it.

09-05-2005, 08:15 AM	#34
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 849	It's hard, isn't it? To sit in our comfy homes with electricty and running water and watch vidclip after vidclip of devestation in our own back yard. Knowing that as "individual citizens" there is very little we can do, in a direct, active way. I found out I wouldn't be allowed to go to New Orleans, because I lack the training and I am not qualified (you have to be capable of lifting 70 pounds). I would just end up being in the way, regardless of my intentions. So it's up to us, as individual citizens, to take a step back (since we already ARE back)...toss our emotional reactions to the side if only for an hour or two. Force logic to kick in. And then look again and see what needs to be done from a distance, and where we can fit in to this scene. Maybe it's how I'm hardwired that makes me think (and write) differently. When faced with crisis, I get weird. The entire scope of the crisis smacks me in the face. I see every single freaking side of the whole thing all at that same time, in a split second, and I have to remove layer upon layer upon layer of data from my brain until all that's left is me, and what I can do about it. Only after I've done this process (which I'm learning here through your replies is not normal), can I blast out my emotions. Kinda like one of my recent posts where I said if anyone -refuses- to evacuate at this point, to let them rot in their homes. Harsh, yes. But I could've worded it prettier - sugar-coated it, and said the exact same thing in a different way and I probably would've gotten a bunch of "heck yeah!" posts in response. As for guns - not for me. I'm a coward and a pacifist to the extreme, and I'd let someone beat the living crap out of me before I ever raised a hand to another person. It's not a moral issue for me. I -should- fight back. I just don't have it in me to do it. And so - I won't be getting a gun to protect myself or my family, "just in case." Guns creep me out and I won't allow one to be in my home. It also isn't the solution. Remember.. All those people had almost a full 24 hours notice to leave. If they were unable, they could've arranged with their neighbors, friends, families. They had time to do this. I wouldn't wish what happened to the victims of the violence on anyone, no one "deserves" it. But the only people they had control over was themselves. And for whatever reason, they chose inaction, and now they are seeing the results. People who are normally law-abiding citizens killing others with guns, robbing abandoned homes of jewelry in the middle of a 20-foot flood-filled city..with no open pawnshops to sell it to...there's no logic in what happened to -those- looters. Plenty of logic to the junkies who did the same thing - junkies will do anything for a fix, and will do even worse once they realize a fix isn't coming. Rapes, attacking and shooting rescuers, theft of non-essentials, hoarding of essentials while their neighbors who didn't evacuate when the first orders came before the storm sit on rooftops dying of thirst...this is what's left of New Orleans. This is what those people have been reduced to, regardless of whether or not they were like that in the first place. That's what's left now. And that image is why I feel as I feel about the whole thing. Help where help will actually do some good. And just forget the rest, it'll take care of itself. Tragic, sad, cold-hearted and horrible to consider - but that is the reality of it, and no amount of sugar-coating will change it.