Did America Ask For Katrina?
I've recently been reading reactions from around the world to Hurricane Katrina's destruction in the Gulf Coast region of the US. Many are messages of hope and sympathy and express confidence that the devastated areas will rebuild not only their buildings but their lives as well. But some are searing remarks about how America is reaping what she sows, because she is the biggest contributer to global warming, or because of foreign policies even!
If you don't want to send donations because you see America as a wealthy nation who can handle the rebuilding financially, that's fine. Keep your money, or put it towards last year's tsunami relief. But keep the nasty comments, too. Those who drowned in Katrina's flood waters are just as dead as those who drowned in the floodwaters of the tsunami. And their loved ones mourn the loss just the same. Katrina didn't ask people their views on the war in Iraq or global warming before killing them. Certainly people died who opposed your views on anything, but also people died who supported your point of view. People of many different ethnic, political, social, economic, and religious backgrounds perished. Your compassion would be appropriate at this time, and perhaps in a few weeks you can take up your hatred again if you must. But give it a rest for now, okay?
Our thanks to those who sent well-wishes.
posted by DErifter @ 9/01/2005 08:56:00 PM
1 Comments:
I'm not sure what you do with a city like that. I don't think anybody knows just yet. It's true that it never probably was a good idea to build a city there. They knew about the potential, hence all the pumps and whatnot, but I suppose some people in(politically or financialy)high places thought it was worth the risk. Obviously the people who lived there thought so too, or maybe they never considered it a real possibility. If I lived there and thought for one minute that my place could be wiped out by a hurricane, and knew that hurricanes are halfway common in the area, I'd have been moving on.
But since there's so much in the way of roads and underground gas lines and the power grid, plus the emotions and history... if I was a gambling man I'd wager it'll be rebuilt. I hope we never see this again. It could be that the city might have survived the hurricane itself had the levies not let loose, but it still seems like a mistake to have built there in the first place. None of that changes what has already happened. If you could turn back time, a lot of things would be different. Thank God that hundreds of thousands heeded the pre-storm warnings and left.
Post a Comment
<< Home