[Vision2020] Disaster Response

[Melynda Huskey]

I'm often floored by what I read on Vision 2020--I think we all must be, from time to time, regardless of our political/religious/philosophical positions.

Today, though, I just have to say, and I'm choosing these words carefully:

What the fuck is the matter with people?

Pat, do you really, really think that the people of New Orleans are dying of thirst because they were too lazy or too stupid (or maybe too black, which is what your admittedly obscure reference to the Civil War seems to imply) to fill milk jugs with water?

And although it's not fair to hold Jeff Harkins accountable for words he didn't intend me to see, is it a failure of "self-reliance" on the part of Gulf Coast residents which is killing them now?

Can anyone seriously be saying to him- or herself, "Well, the official death toll is 58, and we'll just hope it doesn't rise"?

Or, "Well, they chose to live in a coastal city, so of course they deserve to drown, die of thirst, or watch their children perish in agony."

Please think about what you're saying.  Please.

These are real people, and they are suffering and dying.  They have lost everything they had in the world.  Please take two minutes to imagine yourself in the situation of any of these wretched people:  imagine just for a moment that your own house is filling with filthy, contaminated water, that you have no way to contact anyone for help, nowhere to go.  No food, no water, no medicine, no shelter.  Dead bodies floating past you. 

The only personal responsibility which ought to concern us fortunate ones in this situation is our personal responsibility to help those who are in trouble.

Melynda Huskey