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Blogs by SHERRY G HEIM
Survival:Ultimately Our Own Responsibility 9/2/2005 7:33:28 PM
I am hearing people blaming our government for the fate of the people stricken by Katrina. How can any person be responsible for what occurs from a natural disaster...especially one where people had time to get out of harms way. What is with all the talk of the National Guard not getting to the victims of Katrina quick enough? Does anyone understand that the National Guard are reservists who have their own lives to shore up before they can leave to assist others? Do you not understand that they must be gathered up, briefed, given their supplies, weapons, etc and shipped to the area in need? Why is the federal government to blame? Did you know that each state has its own National Guard and the Governor of that state is responsible for calling them up? It is the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans and the people who dropped the ball. All those bond issues to improve the levees, voted down by the people who didn’t want their tax dollars spent that way. A State government who didn’t force the City to fix the levees…then the disaster hits, not one that was unexpected as sooner or later it was bound to happen; and suddenly the federal government is to blame. The magnitude of Katrina was already known and she didn’t sneak up quietly on the town. Every person was told to evacuate the area…many chose not to listen…they chose to try to ride the storm out even though they knew that the levees in New Orleans would not be able to withstand the forces that hovered off of their coast. Why not simply get to higher ground to see how it plays out, why be a sitting duck in your house waiting to be stricken by disaster and then be stuck where you can’t get out? Why did the City not provide the transportation out of the city before the storm hit as they were supposed to do? Why were the people not stopping the ones who were shooting at the helicopters that were trying to deliver supplies? Why were the people not banding together and forming a human wall so that help could get to them? Instead of pulling together to help and support one another, they took on a every man/woman for him/her self attitude. They have hampered their own ability to be rescued, or reached with supplies, busses and aid. In times of disaster, we need to understand that help may not be on its way or at least not quickly and we need to employ our survival skills to the best of our abilities. Aside from the handicapped, the sick, the elderly and the infirm, everyone else had the ability to walk away from New Orleans before the hurricane struck and destroyed their town and their homes. Though they didn’t seem to have the ability to do that, many seemed to have found the strength to pack boats with big-screen televisions that they looted from local businesses. Again, where are the survival skills? Is that television going to purify water for you or feed your children? Is all that jewelry you have taken going to provide you and your family with shelter? Of course the answer is no. Those things have no use to them and will have less use to them when the diseases from wading in water filled with raw sewage, chemicals and decaying bodies causes them to become extremely sick or perhaps even die from exposure to it. But hey! “I have a big-screen TV..whoo-hoo!” The situation in New Orleans is so bad that police officers are turning in their badges saying that in light of them having lost everything, they could see no point in risking their lives to help others who were trying to harm them. It is really easy to point fingers at the government and at the National Guard, when looking for a scapegoat, but isn’t our survival ultimately our own responsibility? Shouldn’t we be doing all in our power to allow those who are coming to help us to be able to get to us? When we are drowning, it would be wise if we would tread water instead of simply screaming “I’m drowning” while going under for the third time waiting for help to arrive. We need to understand that nobody owes us anything in life. Waiting around and believing that someone is going to come and take us away from all the bad things in life is a fairytale and has never been our reality. We have created a society of dependent people who have little common sense when it comes to insuring their own survival and/or safety and who have learned to rely on the government or others for all of their needs.
