For me, it is just Ignorance of the Obvious, a disease that seems to freely flow in our current culture. Mass destruction caused by nature has caused havoc and horrors not only in our country, but throughout the nations of a shared planet. The lives that were lost are horrendous, but the lives of those who have survived have turned into nightmares from which we all wish we could wake up instantly! We saw the clown show of ‘one-up’s-manship’ performed by ratings hungry reporters, we heard the dire intro music with the words Harvey or Irma all in caps, and between the millions of commercials we were informed that people were evacuating but never told the hell holes they were asked to reside in for God, only knew or knows how long. Politicians patted themselves on the back, and the idiot residing in the Oval Office, could only tell the world how big these storms were or just how happy the victims seemed to be while sweltering in buildings, wearing damp clothes, having wondered what might happen to their homes left behind. The fires are still burning in the West, the 8.0 Earthquake took a serious toll in Mexico, the flooding on the Asian Continent is raging the lives of those already living in poverty, and some of the Caribbean Islands looked as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on the landscape. I am never sure how the survivors survive to be honest. A pit grows inside my stomach just considering the possibilities of what do you do next, where do you go and to whom do you turn.
This is when I do repeat the phrase in my head the Ignorance of the Obvious. The livelihoods of many have been devastated, there will be little to income for many, leaving not only a lack of shelter, a loss of self, but very limited income to first purchase boots to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps (You know the republican mantra of if you can’t do it yourself, then you are lazy and a burden to the government.) We think that the Red Cross will come to the rescue, and perhaps some volunteer will make an immediate impact to the wealthier citizens lives, we hope that the National Guard will keep order and assist in trying to normalize an every day existence, but even the Guard is limited in that task, and we await the politicians to pontificate on how we are Americans so of course we will get through this. I was not flooded, so of course I WILL get though this. The Ignorance is that because it is one more disaster, we can manage it, never reminding ourselves of the previous disasters from which the scabs are not yet healed. The Obvious is that if we truly were a country with compassion there are ways to move ahead.
I never understand why the Government does not hire locals, giving them a salary, to do the work of rebuilding their own cities and towns. So many people will be unemployed, having to wait for FEMA or the Insurance companies to play bureaucratic mind games, growing angry with the wait. So many people will take one step forward and two steps backs salivating as the government attempts to make progress, while usually using words instead of action. For every disaster lets recreate the WPA,(Works Progress Administration) that was used in the Great Depression). Put people to work, give them a goal, actually lead them forward rather than having them stand in place for what must seem an eternity. It all seems on a human level so simple so inclusive, for me its just the issue of Ignorance of the Obvious that it won’t happen.
