One of the most disturbing similarities between hurricanes
Sandy and Katrina (and others as well, I’m sure) is the astonishing lack of
preparation by some of the people who live in the affected areas and who had
ample warning of the coming storm. In my
estimation, those in the Sandy area have been much better prepared than the
people of New Orleans were. Still, I’ve
been seeing and hearing reports about people being desperate for basic things
like food and clean drinking water, even though it’s only been a few days since
the storm hit. Forgive me but what kind
of people are forewarned of a massive hurricane coming and they don’t go to the
store and stock up on a few basic necessities?
The answer, I fear, is people who have become so dependent
on government that their natural instincts to prepare for an emergency have been
slowly erased, like genetic traits that are obsolete. Instead, these people wait until the crisis
is at hand, and their newly evolved instincts kick in: they whine, beg and steal.
I cannot think of a greater indictment against government
dependence.
One major difference between the two is that the media (thanks to Christie) thinks Obama is doing a great job while Bush was trying to kill African Americans. Even as Obama campaigns he is doing great.
ReplyDeleteJust a side note, my home town is on the NJ coast (Manasquan) and it was destroyed. The beach was pushed 1/4 mile island.
Great point, Patrick. To a large extent, the press controls this country.
DeleteSo sorry to hear about your home town. The devastation is beyond belief.
Once again the media is shieding Obama! You go out to area's devastated by Sandy and they are infuriated at the lack of help. But they are white people for the most part, right? And Obama walked on the flood waters, right?
ReplyDeleteYou're right though, I live in Florida, I have a generator, my house is rated to 130 mph winds, I have the capacity to store 50 gallons of gas. I could survive for 10-12 days with what I have without any additional help. But then again, I'm not a Democrat.
Real men are never democrats, Jim.
DeleteHappy election day! Never been more nervous in my life.
CW,
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm late to the conversation. I've had issues with blogger for months.
As someone who has lived through many storms and outages over the years I am well prepared to last for weeks on my own on a moments notice. Conversely, when an emergency is forecast supplies evaporate within hours from the supermarket shelves. Typically there is only 3 days worth of food on the shelves. That is precious little for any emergency, especially this one.
The problem was compounded when powerline workers came to the aid of New Jersey, from all over the South, but were turned away because they were non-union. That is the height of idiocy while people are starving and freezing. An EO by the Governor or by Zero could have corrected that but were obviously too busy campaigning. Hell, those affected wouldn't vote anyway. Zero had his photo-op with Fatboy already.
I’m glad you’re back, Hardnox! You have definitely been missed.
DeleteI guess the lesson here is that people need to be prepared for a crisis WELL IN ADVANCE and not wait until the emergency is at hand. It’s no surprise to me that people like you and Jim are prepared. That’s tends to be the nature of conservatives.
I have read and absorbed your post and the comments that follow. Excellent points all. But what struck me is that we tend to talk about the "government" as an entity separate from humanoids. Our governments are made up of people elected and/or appointed by someone elected, etc. So is it the case people are dependent upon government OR are they dependent upon on other people?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the weird response but hey, every blog post deserves at least one oddball response, eh? Hahaha
There is no easy answer to that question, Mrs. AL, because we live in a perpetual state of Catch-22.
DeleteAll of us, as part of a society, are dependent upon others to a certain extent. Government represents one aspect of this inter-dependency, but there’s an important distinction to be made between dependency that is consensual and dependency that is forced.
In the U.S., government has traditionally been an elected body with a DEFINED purpose. Ostensibly it exists only to do the things that are difficult if not nearly impossible for people to do as individuals within society (i.e. oversee the justice system, safeguard the country, build infrastructure for common use, provide for large-scale crisis management, etc). We have a right to expect the gov’t to do those things that we expressly formed it to do. But as you know, some people are intent on making gov’t responsible for things far beyond the scope of its original purpose, which means they presume the right to depend on others (i.e. you and me) without their consent.
So it’s not so much a question of whether people depend on other people but to what extent they have the right to do so.
I've received no warning of an imminent storm. Nonetheless, I have an electric generator in my garage and 36 gallons of ethanol-free unleaded gasoline. My house is 60 feet above hundred-year flood plane. I have cases of bottled water. I have six months of frozen meats and the generator if power goes. I can heat with either electricity or propane, and have a 500 gallon tank of the gas. I can power my well with the generator. If I can exit my street, I can auto in any direction to evacuate. If, not I can boat from my dock south to the Ten-Tom and to the Gulf at Mobile or northwestward via the Tennessee River to the Ohio, then to the Mississippi. I have a stockpile of my prescription meds to last two years.
ReplyDeleteYou're putting me to shame, drpete!
DeleteMerry Christmas CW! Have a safe and joyous holiday season.
ReplyDelete