Saturday, September 10, 2005
Katrina Relief
The mayor of New Orleans blew it. If he had just told Bush that there were weapons of mass destruction in the SuperDome, he would have sent the troops lickedy-split.
There are a few lingering points to consider.
1) The worst kid on the team gets picked last and is stashed in right field. By the 3rd inning, he's counting the blades of grass in the outfield. In the 5th inning, someone hits a fly ball to him, but he's mentally checked out, he's a lousy player anyway, and he drops the ball. And everyone gives him a hard time for not staying alert.
That's how it is with disaster relief. We don't put any real money into it, there's no legitimate training (what are you going to do -- flood New Orleans for practice?) and nobody thinks about it until something goes wrong. Then we wonder why the execution is less than perfect.
2) Nobody really plans or thinks ahead. All the people who are bitching at Bush and FEMA -- they're no different. They all crammed for their exams and wrote their term papers the day before they were due. Even now, they're more worried about spending a couple of extra bucks at the pump than about the hundreds of extra dollars they're going to spend heating their homes this Winter -- only a few months away. Good planning requires foresight -- and that's in shorter supply than oil.
Now I live in New England, where babies and fire fighters will die this Winter in fires caused by the improper use of space heaters -- space heaters purchased because people won't be able to afford the gas or oil to heat their homes. Pipes will burst and old people will suffer from hypothermia. So tell me again about how expensive it is to fill the tank of your SUV.
3) In the beginning, it was one more case of poor people of color suffering on the tube. With the price of those big-ass screen TV's coming down, we'll all be able to see the suffering in these various Third World situations on the big screen. (Well, New Orleans is in the South -- it's kind of like Third World.) But it doesn't seem real -- we're jaded to the suffering after many years of looking at tsunami victims, famine victims, AIDS victims, black kids with bloated bellies and empty eyes and swarms of flies buzzing around their heads. "These people are up shit creek -- send money." Over and over again. We hear it, we see it, but it's like when you're a teenager and your mother tells you to do your homework. There's this little switch in the back of your head that goes "click" -- and you've tuned out.
But it was that guy -- the one who couldn't hold onto his wife's hand -- and she told him to take care of their children. He caught us by surprise -- at that moment, we all looked at him and saw ourselves -- and cared. Cared beyond the conventional "tsk, tsk." I pray for that guy and his kids.
So do we have a plan for Los Angeles when the Big One hits?
There are a few lingering points to consider.
1) The worst kid on the team gets picked last and is stashed in right field. By the 3rd inning, he's counting the blades of grass in the outfield. In the 5th inning, someone hits a fly ball to him, but he's mentally checked out, he's a lousy player anyway, and he drops the ball. And everyone gives him a hard time for not staying alert.
That's how it is with disaster relief. We don't put any real money into it, there's no legitimate training (what are you going to do -- flood New Orleans for practice?) and nobody thinks about it until something goes wrong. Then we wonder why the execution is less than perfect.
2) Nobody really plans or thinks ahead. All the people who are bitching at Bush and FEMA -- they're no different. They all crammed for their exams and wrote their term papers the day before they were due. Even now, they're more worried about spending a couple of extra bucks at the pump than about the hundreds of extra dollars they're going to spend heating their homes this Winter -- only a few months away. Good planning requires foresight -- and that's in shorter supply than oil.
Now I live in New England, where babies and fire fighters will die this Winter in fires caused by the improper use of space heaters -- space heaters purchased because people won't be able to afford the gas or oil to heat their homes. Pipes will burst and old people will suffer from hypothermia. So tell me again about how expensive it is to fill the tank of your SUV.
3) In the beginning, it was one more case of poor people of color suffering on the tube. With the price of those big-ass screen TV's coming down, we'll all be able to see the suffering in these various Third World situations on the big screen. (Well, New Orleans is in the South -- it's kind of like Third World.) But it doesn't seem real -- we're jaded to the suffering after many years of looking at tsunami victims, famine victims, AIDS victims, black kids with bloated bellies and empty eyes and swarms of flies buzzing around their heads. "These people are up shit creek -- send money." Over and over again. We hear it, we see it, but it's like when you're a teenager and your mother tells you to do your homework. There's this little switch in the back of your head that goes "click" -- and you've tuned out.
But it was that guy -- the one who couldn't hold onto his wife's hand -- and she told him to take care of their children. He caught us by surprise -- at that moment, we all looked at him and saw ourselves -- and cared. Cared beyond the conventional "tsk, tsk." I pray for that guy and his kids.
So do we have a plan for Los Angeles when the Big One hits?
# posted by Bill @ 7:52 PM 
