Friday, September 02, 2005
Tragedy
I don't have a huge connection to any place I live or have lived. My family is here which is why I am here. If something came along tomorrow that took me away I'd have some regrets, proably for the first time in my life, but I'd be able to pull myself away from the life I've built myself in Rapid City South Dakota. My dad was in the military and we moved a lot when I was younger, even if we did settle down here when at the end of my second grade year. Maybe that's where I got it from, I've averaged a different residence every 18 months of my life. In the four years between 1996 and 1999 I split three of those years by living in two different states in each of them. I just don't have a strong connection to places.
So if I talk to someone from Atlanta Georgia, it's hard for me to imagine how they can still be angry at Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. In 1864 after a campaign to take the city of Atlanta during the Civil War, Sherman ordered the city burned to the ground. More than one hundred forty years later, people whose roots run deep in Atlanta are still pissed. Sherman's name is cursed to this very day.
Our nation is, in many ways, much closer than it has ever been. Mass media make large news events part of our shared national memory. I was in Las Vegas during the attacks of 11 September 2001, but the distance didn't cause the events of that day to be ineffectual to me. I sat in a hotel room for hours watching rescue efforts, watching hours of news reports, hours of speculation about what had happened and what the days in the future would bring. You could see it effect the other tourists, most of who were stranded as there was no air travel. The sports book at the Hard Rock, crammed with people not watching a game, but watching the news.
I was pissed off. Part of that was because I was with a group of veterans, old men who were going crazy because there was nothing they could do, there wasn't even a clearly defined enemy if they could have done anything. We all wanted vengence and as a name came out of the chaos, Osama bin Laden, I prayed for that vengence. I'm not particularly proud of that, but it's true.
I didn't pay much attention to Huricane Katrina as it barrelled down on the Gulf coast. I noticed that it made a last second change in direction, sparing New Orleans. I was aware of the precarious situation that the Crescent city was in, being below sea level and bordering the ocean. I had read what could happen to that fine city if it were hit by a strong storm. But the storm had veered, everything was going to be OK.
As I saw the first pictures of a flooded New Orleans, it became clear to me how bad things were going to be. I've hear New Orleans described as a "bath tub," except that once the water got in there, there was no plug to pull to allow all of the water to drain away. Even before I heard any reports of the human cost, I began to imagine how bad it was. I heard one estimate that 300,000 people were left in the city as the flooding began. That's an unbelievable number of people forced to find higher ground, or climb to rooftops, or grasp to floating debris, or to simply drown.
I began to think these things on Monday. I'm not trained in emergency management, I have no expertise, but I could tell lots of people were going to die if they didn't get help immediately. There is a federal agency, a Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose job is to prepare for events like the aftermath of this horrible storm. When any meaningul help for those thousands of people trapped in this city didn't begin to arrive until today, well, then there's a problem. And I don't just mean that lots of people are going to die, I mean that lots of heads are going to roll.
A couple hundred miles away, residents of Atlanta still curse the name of William Tecumseh Sherman. Those who survive the tragedy in New Orleans, and their progeny will curse the name of George W, Bush.
BOJ
So if I talk to someone from Atlanta Georgia, it's hard for me to imagine how they can still be angry at Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. In 1864 after a campaign to take the city of Atlanta during the Civil War, Sherman ordered the city burned to the ground. More than one hundred forty years later, people whose roots run deep in Atlanta are still pissed. Sherman's name is cursed to this very day.
Our nation is, in many ways, much closer than it has ever been. Mass media make large news events part of our shared national memory. I was in Las Vegas during the attacks of 11 September 2001, but the distance didn't cause the events of that day to be ineffectual to me. I sat in a hotel room for hours watching rescue efforts, watching hours of news reports, hours of speculation about what had happened and what the days in the future would bring. You could see it effect the other tourists, most of who were stranded as there was no air travel. The sports book at the Hard Rock, crammed with people not watching a game, but watching the news.
I was pissed off. Part of that was because I was with a group of veterans, old men who were going crazy because there was nothing they could do, there wasn't even a clearly defined enemy if they could have done anything. We all wanted vengence and as a name came out of the chaos, Osama bin Laden, I prayed for that vengence. I'm not particularly proud of that, but it's true.
I didn't pay much attention to Huricane Katrina as it barrelled down on the Gulf coast. I noticed that it made a last second change in direction, sparing New Orleans. I was aware of the precarious situation that the Crescent city was in, being below sea level and bordering the ocean. I had read what could happen to that fine city if it were hit by a strong storm. But the storm had veered, everything was going to be OK.
As I saw the first pictures of a flooded New Orleans, it became clear to me how bad things were going to be. I've hear New Orleans described as a "bath tub," except that once the water got in there, there was no plug to pull to allow all of the water to drain away. Even before I heard any reports of the human cost, I began to imagine how bad it was. I heard one estimate that 300,000 people were left in the city as the flooding began. That's an unbelievable number of people forced to find higher ground, or climb to rooftops, or grasp to floating debris, or to simply drown.
I began to think these things on Monday. I'm not trained in emergency management, I have no expertise, but I could tell lots of people were going to die if they didn't get help immediately. There is a federal agency, a Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose job is to prepare for events like the aftermath of this horrible storm. When any meaningul help for those thousands of people trapped in this city didn't begin to arrive until today, well, then there's a problem. And I don't just mean that lots of people are going to die, I mean that lots of heads are going to roll.
A couple hundred miles away, residents of Atlanta still curse the name of William Tecumseh Sherman. Those who survive the tragedy in New Orleans, and their progeny will curse the name of George W, Bush.
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 5:17 PM 
