Insignificance

[judecorp]

It feels so insignificant and selfish to continue writing about my day to day affairs when there is catastrophe out there. Part of me knows that there is always catastrophe out there somewhere and that the entire idea of life going on is exactly what keeps it moving. Indeed, without a little selfishness, our existence would just be a continual dwelling on past bad events. True.

But at the same time, I can't help but feel like a major heel writing about things like work and eating junk food, when there are people and animals floating around dead in a flooded and toxic city I have never had the privilege to visit and know only through the eyes of Hot Mormon Julie on the Real World. I know that I can't write All Disaster All the Time, and I know I can't fall into my lifelong trap where a bad situation somewhere leaves me guilty feelings where I don't deserve any enjoyment. But still.

My heart just goes out to all of those creatures, four-legged and two, living and dead, out in the Gulf Coast area. I still keenly remember buying toiletries and bringing them to Ground Zero. I wish it were equally as easy for me to help out, even in a little way, this time. (Aside from donating to the Red Cross, we've already done that.)

Comments

[gabriellag.livejournal.com]

I have to watch, even if it does hurt, and it does nothing, I know.

I put a room up on hurricanehousing.org for a single female, or a woman with one child, but I doubt anyone wants to move to a random small town in Ohio. It made me feel better, though. And we do have great services here, and I know the reporters of the local paper. Anyone that came would get the help the need.

I hate that the refugees are 95% black, and somehow that seems to make a difference. I hate that people are telling me it's their fault for not getting out. Hello? These people are poor. They live in a city and don't own cars. How, exactly were they supposed to get out? Why are we seemingly doing nothing? I'm just so frustrated now.

On a lighter note... Julie, good old Julie. She was in my second grade class. One of my two best friends in second grade. I went to her house and got a tour of the food pantry in the basement. (Mormons keep an emergency supply for um, I'm not quite sure what for, but the do, and I remember it vividly). I played with her brothers. She signed my yearbook. I was inseperable from her for a year. I e-mailed her once she was on the Real World. She "thought" she remembered me, but claimed to have gone to a bunch of different schools and didn't have many static memories from childhood. Anyway, thought you might find that interesting.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously jealous of your Julie-ness. (And for the record, Mormons are required to keep all of that emergency stuff in their basements. It's so that if there is a disaster, the Mormons will keep on thriving, yo!)

I think it's easy for people to sit behind their televisions and computer screens and yell at people because they can't relate. I think it's easy to look at all the people stuck in their attics and say, "Foolish people! Why didn't you leave?" because they haven't been in a situation where they had to choose. I think it's easier to concentrate on the few people who /could/ have left (and chose not to) rather than the people who need to be exacuated from hospitals and prisons, just like it's easier to concentrate on some looters instead of all of the people stranded on their rooftops praying for help... and drinking water.

Besides, it's so much easier to blame the people for not evacuating, because then you don't have to think about helping out. Why should you help someone who chose their fate with their own stupidity, right?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Wow - your musician friend has a knack for words. I'm glad to know (since I admittedly don't get to see as much media as I would like due to time constraints) that people all over the world are outraged as I am outraged, and can put words on an ire that I cannot yet express personally.

Regime change!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

yes.

Don't worry, be happy.

[goddamnelf.livejournal.com]

Life here in Lafayette is a more crowded version of business as usual. A lot of New Orleans people have moved here (the ones with money anyway). There is a lot of aid travelling down to N.O. A friend of mine upstate said she saw a convoy of 18 wheelers filled with food, water, milk, and whatever else went through heading south this morning. A group of individuals here with boats left and went to N.O. to help with the rescue effort. Some of the evacues are being housed here at the Cajun Dome, and their pets are in a place called Blackhum Coliseum, which hosts rodeos and the like. My girlfriend Cindy, donated cat food, and liter, and a cat carrier, and she is going to donate time to help take care of the animals this weekend. And now that all of these national guard troops are arriving in N.O. today, things should start to improve. It is a sad reality that poverty, and lack of education, sometimes equals being left behind, and suffering for it. But not everyone who stayed was poor. Fats Domino stayed, and was rescued this morning from his third floor house in the worst flooded area. But things are improving, albeit slowly.

Re: Don't worry, be happy.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not worried that the world is over, and I definitely have faith that the people in the affected areas and the surrounding areas are going to get things done and take care of each other. I saw it first-hand in New York and I look forward to seeing it again in Louisiana, Mississipi, and Alabama. Not to mention the areas who have already stepped in to help refugees, and the colleges that have stepped up to help affected college students, etc.

And no, not everyone who stayed was poor, and not everyone who stayed was Black. But when I look out at the seas of faces, I sure see a lot of poor and Black ones.

Things are improving and will continue to improve. But just because things are starting to move forward does not mean I should cease being upset at how long it took to get things going, or speculate on the reasons behind that, or want to help. Just because I'm not in an affected area does nothing to quench my continual desire to fight for what's right and good and try to establish peace and health in our communities.

That's never going to change.