“What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?”
There’s not much to be said here. Fury obviates eloquence. We are watching a city, along with literally thousands of its most needy residents, die in slow motion. There is no mystery, no confusion. We know where they are, we know what they need, we know where the materials and services are that can alleviate their suffering. Being far from the actual events and feeling hampered by poor information, I may be wrong in speculating, but it seems that in spite of all of this knowledge, along with the most advanced shipping and logistics network in human history, those people will still die. I know, this very minute, how I could get a bottle of water delivered overnight to a person in London or Tokyo, but I do not know to whom I could speak, beg, or shout at to do the same for a person stranded on a roof in New Orleans. The shame this brings upon our country is incalculable.
There seems to be little we can do directly, but the best alternate now seems to be survivor assistance. Houston is likely to be the key relief location, and what we have seen to date is that the city or regional governments may fail to provide assitance to the levels needed. Key will be some local support organizations. Money, for those in our areas, would be best, since shipping and logistics would be ineffective relative to the resources they already have in place:
Second Harvest website Houston Food Bank, for regional folks (they are rerouting monetary donations to Second Harvest, but will accept hard goods).
It is a miniscule gesture, but I am not posting about anything else until the situation — I hesitate to say ‘improves’ since I honestly can’t imagine when such a descriptor would be justified — moves from being absolutely horrific. We live in a world of relative moral judgments recalculated every day, and this is a wall. So I’m stopping. I do not trust that the scale of the tragedy and response needed has been adequately determined, nor has an adequate response been formed. To this, I meekly submit that we not speak of anything else until it is apparent that something changes. If any of us who have even a nominal amount of relevance or impact in presenting information or opinion to the world stopped, and spoke only of our demand that more be done, or find some other means to intervene, it would then at least feel like my participation is scraping the bottom rungs of diginity. I have this place for these words, and they are angry and hopeless.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
“What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?”
There’s not much to be said here. Fury obviates eloquence. We are watching a city, along with literally thousands of its most needy residents, die in slow motion. There is no mystery, no confusion. We know where they are, we know what they need, we know where the materials and services are that can alleviate their suffering. Being far from the actual events and feeling hampered by poor information, I may be wrong in speculating, but it seems that in spite of all of this knowledge, along with the most advanced shipping and logistics network in human history, those people will still die. I know, this very minute, how I could get a bottle of water delivered overnight to a person in London or Tokyo, but I do not know to whom I could speak, beg, or shout at to do the same for a person stranded on a roof in New Orleans. The shame this brings upon our country is incalculable.
There seems to be little we can do directly, but the best alternate now seems to be survivor assistance. Houston is likely to be the key relief location, and what we have seen to date is that the city or regional governments may fail to provide assitance to the levels needed. Key will be some local support organizations. Money, for those in our areas, would be best, since shipping and logistics would be ineffective relative to the resources they already have in place: Second Harvest websiteHouston Food Bank, for regional folks (they are rerouting monetary donations to Second Harvest, but will accept hard goods). It is a miniscule gesture, but I am not posting about anything else until the situation — I hesitate to say ‘improves’ since I honestly can’t imagine when such a descriptor would be justified — moves from being absolutely horrific. We live in a world of relative moral judgments recalculated every day, and this is a wall. So I’m stopping. I do not trust that the scale of the tragedy and response needed has been adequately determined, nor has an adequate response been formed. To this, I meekly submit that we not speak of anything else until it is apparent that something changes. If any of us who have even a nominal amount of relevance or impact in presenting information or opinion to the world stopped, and spoke only of our demand that more be done, or find some other means to intervene, it would then at least feel like my participation is scraping the bottom rungs of diginity. I have this place for these words, and they are angry and hopeless.