Aftermath
We're all watching what's going on in the Southeast. At least half our team has friends and family who live in or around the New Orleans area. From the gas prices quadrupling to a city 8 feet under water - not even media sensationalism seems to be able to capture the effects of Katrina.
From this side of the world - what do we see? CNN has non-stop coverage, BBC has intermittent statistics, and the local news has better things to talk about. How bizarre our country must seem to these people. A devastating natural disaster that nearly wipes out a cultural epicenter... but there are few stories of aid and support. What we hear is Bush being criticized for not acting quickly, we watch enormously overweight people being barely lifted from their houses, we see images of near-third-world poverty. And wow - it HITS you. THAT is America from the outside...
...a country so rich we eat ourselves into obesity, a country so divided that the corporations take a first opportunity to gouge the consumer and getting a President to admit that he acted slowly is more important that speeding up the reason he's apologizing... not the America I'm used to seeing.
Perhaps I can blame it on the media for being biased? Maybe I can claim that I'm starting to see things as they really are? But really, there's no point in making a judgment. It's the way things are. Seeing the forest from the trees doesn't change the structure of the trees themselves. You can only appreciate that depending on where you are standing, you will have a different view of the same picture. It's the reason people rage into wars with both guns firing and reason the cycle of life has you in the gutter one moment and flying high the next. It's also the reason that we should be able to overcome our prejudices and take the time to understand other people's perspectives. Take the high road, but every once in a while make a detour to see what's really out there.
Of course, I'm not sitting in line for hours to buy $6 gallons of gas.
love and best wishes...
From this side of the world - what do we see? CNN has non-stop coverage, BBC has intermittent statistics, and the local news has better things to talk about. How bizarre our country must seem to these people. A devastating natural disaster that nearly wipes out a cultural epicenter... but there are few stories of aid and support. What we hear is Bush being criticized for not acting quickly, we watch enormously overweight people being barely lifted from their houses, we see images of near-third-world poverty. And wow - it HITS you. THAT is America from the outside...
...a country so rich we eat ourselves into obesity, a country so divided that the corporations take a first opportunity to gouge the consumer and getting a President to admit that he acted slowly is more important that speeding up the reason he's apologizing... not the America I'm used to seeing.
Perhaps I can blame it on the media for being biased? Maybe I can claim that I'm starting to see things as they really are? But really, there's no point in making a judgment. It's the way things are. Seeing the forest from the trees doesn't change the structure of the trees themselves. You can only appreciate that depending on where you are standing, you will have a different view of the same picture. It's the reason people rage into wars with both guns firing and reason the cycle of life has you in the gutter one moment and flying high the next. It's also the reason that we should be able to overcome our prejudices and take the time to understand other people's perspectives. Take the high road, but every once in a while make a detour to see what's really out there.
Of course, I'm not sitting in line for hours to buy $6 gallons of gas.
love and best wishes...
posted by Stephanie at 11:08 AM
3 Comments:
Steph, I read your blog in stealth mode from time to time, never commented until now. Your insight and commentary here is fantastic, and your mom is right. It's really how things are over here, and yes, as a country, we really are this... embarassing...
Your writing style is great, funny, and smart!
Hey steph, i'll echo the other ladies here in saying, it has definatly been a difficult time to experience. While So Cal is paying about $3.50 for a gallon, and i haven't had to wait for hours to fill my tank, i can say that the angst and pain of the situation is felt everywhere. There's no place to go that you don't overhear some commentary, some sad story, some angry resentment uttered thru tight lips.
I have been lucky, in that all my New Orleans based friends have gotten out and gotten in touch with me. But my friend William had a great uncle who had surgery only 2 days before the storm hit. Great Uncle, aunt and others are stil missing, presumed dead.
Some could not leave because they are too old. Most could not leave because they were too poor, and had no means of leaving, and no where to go to (since many generations of their family and friends were N.O. based, they have no outside refuge to visit). Instead, many chose to die in the only place they had lived...
...then i overhear privledged LA 20 somethings, commenting over lattes, about how people that stupid deserve to die. I tell ya, i almost started a fist-fight in a public place. Not pretty.
Jennifer! Glad to see you online - it was great to meet you while you were out here. Will we see you in LA anytime soon?
NO is still big news out here... but I have heard stories of southern hopspitality from other consultants on the project that are from the southeast that make me smile - if it was going to happen anywhere...
Post a Comment
<< Home