At 01:51 AM Monday 9/5/2005, Robert Seeberger wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Land" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: The Doom That Came To N'Warlins - II
> On Sep 4, 2005, at 7:00 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote:
>
>> From: "Dave Land" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>
>>> This an AOL chat room. It has never been the kind of place where
>>> people come to say "OMG, I can't BELIEVE what I'm seeing on TV!!!"
>
> Of course, I meant to say "This is _not_ an AOL chat room."
>
> (rest of both messages clipped)
>
> Here's the thing, Robert: You said that it appeared that you and
> Damon and Debbie appeared to you to be the only ones on-list who
> cared about actual people.
I hear you Dave and am sorry it came out that way, and I partially
agree. The part I don't agree with is I don't believe the majority of
people grieve by ignoring an issue.
I especially do not believe that of this group. I just don't see
denial as being part of the makeup here. But I think Dan made a good
point when he spoke about waiting for someone else to speak up first.
I think that may be more operative here than anything else. Perhaps,
with all the flaming and fighting that has occurred here, people have
just been a bit timid about posting subjects that could become
politicized?
I don't know.
I do know that it really bothered me after the tsunami that it never
was discussed, and I don't think varying grief modes can explain that.
People were more than willing to discuss politics and religion. People
were willing to fight onlist, curse at each other, and rattle swords
to the point of being abusive. When Katrina did all this damage and
the authorities were doing little and no one here even mentioned it in
political terms it pained me. I think highly of the people here, but
it was like watching Nero fiddle.
I feel that caring enough to speak up is worth something. I feel Damon
and Debbie and Dan and Gary had something to say and cared enough to
do so. You did also (though I disagree with giving to the Salvation
Army, but that is a subject for a different post). Several here also
made donations and that is of even more value.
But silence, I don't know if that is worth a whole lot.
Can you understand how or even why the discussion of gas prices and
the lack of discussion of a national crisis stood out to me?
Granted, I live in this region. Geographically, I share the same type
of enviroment as the effected people. I have travelled through all
those places, and have stayed in many of them. I've known people from
these areas all my life. I share the same danger they do, and it could
have easily been me. I probably should care more than most of you in
the sense that it is more personal for me.
And some of us were indeed directly in the path of the storm (however
slightly it affected us) and/or know people who were, so I don't
think that is necessarily the reason.
But for me, the silence was louder than words and that more than
anything else bothers me.
One reason why some people are silent in the face of this or other
negative occurrences (be they major disasters like this or smaller
ones that mainly affect one person or family) is not that they are
ignoring it or that they are in denial but that they can simply not
think of anything positive to add to the conversation. They realize
nothing they can say will change what has happened in the slightest,
and they don't see any purpose in simply saying "Me, too," when
someone else has already said, "I'm sorry," so they simply remain
silent rather than add to what seems to them meaningless chatter at a
time of sadness.
OTOH, people at least wish they could do something about gas prices,
so perhaps that is why they commented on that topic. As far as
commenting on the Administration's response to the flooding of New
Orleans, there is already a large portion of the country who loathe
the President and anything associated with him, and many of them have
already weighed in (in other venues, more than here) and dragged out
all that they have against him/his administration from day one and
added blaming him for the hurricane, the breach of the levees, global
warming, the troops being on the other side of the world, gas prices,
and receding hairlines, and so other people who are sick and tired of
hearing those people bash the Administration for everything have
learned to just tune it out.
And there are probably some people who are silent on the issue
because for one reason or another they still have not fully processed it.
-- Ronn! :)
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