----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Land" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 10:11 PM Subject: Re: The Doom That Came To N'Warlins - II
> On Sep 4, 2005, at 11:51 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: > >> 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 found your explanation in a message to Warren(?) very clear: you > just > don't always express yourself well. As the guy who posted a message > containing the words "This is an AOL chat room" when I meant exactly > the > opposite, believe me when I tell you that I accept that you didn't > mean > to demean us all, you were venting about what you perceived as too > much > focus on the least important aspects of the disaster. Thanks Dave.....it means a lot to me to see you say that. It hurts to be misunderstood even when it is ones own damn fault. > >> 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. > > Here's where your long relationship to this list must make a big > difference. Since I've been here, it's mostly been a place for > political > wrangling. I wouldn't have expected a great outpouring of emotion > here. I don't see how you could help but see the list differently. Things are much different than they once were. > > I wouldn't have turned here for that sort of thing, perhaps because > I am > so well-served in that capacity by my friends, family and church. > I'm > intrigued to know that Brin-L used to be a community in that sense, > too. I'm sure you have read some of Warrens missives. He does what I have done at times. When I first joined the list, my (fairly insane) ex-wife had left with the kids and I was unspooling out of "contact craziness", learning to be human again. At various points in that process of pain and healing, I would pour out all the regrets and shame only to find that people judged me much less harshly than I judged myself. I find myself blessed, eh? > >> 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. > > Yeah. Not sure what your issue with the Salvation Army might be, and > so > we can leave it for a separate thread, but Nick has a long > association > with them, so I mentioned them in the context of his contribution. I think I can nutshell it. After TS Allison the hospital I work at was severely damaged. All the patient care areas were without power and the hospital kitchen was destroyed by flood waters. The Salvation Army came in with food to feed the patients. The food was so incredibly vile that it was thrown out and after the second day of this kind of relief the Salvation Army was banned from the hospital. An EMS company provided pizza and sandwiches daily for 6 weeks or so. I'm pretty sure the organization is better in other places, but considering how things work in New Orleans, I would not bet on it having one of the better SA organisations. And God help them if the Houston SA is providing food. > > My next message listed four or five other charities through which > folks > could contribute. I chose to contribute through Habitat for > Humanity, > because I've been involved with them since I did a work trip to the > western highlands of Guatemala in 1991. I'm going to give some extra money to a fund here that helps pay for housing people while they need refuge. I'll link it when I find it in case anyone is interested. I'm really pleased with my fellow Houstonians and Texans. People seem to be very enthusiastic about joining in and helping. > >> But silence, I don't know if that is worth a whole lot. > > It does if there's not much to say. I watched hours and hours of > coverage the night before your post. My wife and I were mostly > speechless at the horror of it all. Only television _has_ to go on > and on about the horror of it all. Plenty of horror to go around. And for me, plenty of anger. I am extremely tempted to post some of what a certain SF writer (not of this list) has had to say. I think he would sell many fewer books if people knew what his opinions were. > >> 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? > > I am beginning to understand. As you said, your initial message > didn't > speak your true intentions clearly. Maybe you could have just > launched > into a discussion of the national crisis without couching it as what > at least a few of us felt was a personal slight, but again, you said > that your message didn't convey the full range of your feelings. Yeah....I could have done better. :( > >> 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. > > Perhaps better for another thread, but I have always had a problem > with > this. People are people and suffering is suffering: why does there > always > have to be a local angle? This strikes me as television thinking > again. > > I don't live on a tropical island, but the horror of the tsunami > struck > me. I don't live in a flood plain, but the suffering in New Orleans > strikes me. I wasn't a dirt-poor indigenous Guatemalan during their > civil war, but I knew that we were alike enough in our humanity to > move > me to fly all night then ride a bus through heavily-armed > checkpoints to > Quetzaltenango to help them build houses... The point being, of > course, > not how great I am for having done so, but that what makes us alike > is > our humanity, and not our address or language or heritage. I'm glad you feel that way, but even if you felt local issues to be more important I would be OK with that. > >> I hope you can understand that the insult was not so intentional >> and >> was mostly a byproduct of an attaboy for Damon and Debbie. > > I've definitely gathered that from your other posts. I appreciate > that > you showed your appreciation to your fellow carers, and I apologize > for > having interpreted your message in a negative light. > >>> Dave "Hurt (though not Celine-Dion-on-CNN-yesterday-hurt) by the >>> suffering in the South" Land >> >> Dave, I don't have a doubt that you are willing to share the pain. >> But >> what happened with Celine Dion? I didn't catch that. > > She was interviewed by Larry King and was practically apoplectic > with > anger and grief. King kept trying to say how great it was that she > had > given a million dollars to the relief effort and trying to compare > her > gift to that of other celebs he had on his "how you can help" show, > and > she got more and more incensed at him for doing so. Mostly, she was > teary-eyed, sad and deeply frustrated with the glacial pace of > relief > efforts, and, I think, frustrated with his celebrity-butt-kissing. > > I've never thought much of Dion, but my opinion of her went up a > couple of notches in that interview. She dismissed her gift over and > over again. What is money, after all? > > At least as impressive was New Orleans native crooner Harry Connick, > Jr., who, though he never shed a tear on camera, was on his way back > into New Orleans to do whatever he could, even if it meant just > standing > on the back of a truck handing out water bottles. I wish anybody in > a > position of power in this situation would exhibit his level of > humility > and concern. Connick was very cool. You could feel his concern. > >> BTW, here in Houston our CBS affiliate is broadcasting WWL-TV on >> one >> of their HD bands. It has been a real eye opener. I may want to >> discuss what I've seen and heard later when I've digested it, but >> it >> pretty much follows from the NO newspapers open letter to the >> administration in todays paper. Can you spell lambasting? > > I can, and I'm seeing plenty of it, but I'm trying to resist > blaming, > because it can't possibly do any good at this point. People want to > point the finger at Bush's shifting of funds from the levee repairs > to Iraq, but there have been TEN presidential administrations since > the Army Corps of Engineers' described plans to shore up the levees. > Right now, there are people that still need to be removed from their > rooftops and people who will definitely die without fresh water and > some food. All the blaming in the world isn't going to save one > life. > > Later will come the investigations, and, I'm sure, testy discussions > on Brin-L :-). > >> There has been more and more good news since yesterday. The >> Kuwaitis >> want to donate 500 million and that is just a wonderful thing to >> hear. A >> friend of mine, a reporter for the Pensacola newspaper finally got >> back >> to me. I'd been quite worried for her only to find out she had been >> busy >> doing good deeds for people in Biloxi. > > Even Iran and Cuba have made offers of support. I'm just cynical > enough > to wonder if some of those offers aren't intended to have a bit of a > poke > in the eye in them, too, but I am trying -- really trying -- to take > it all > in the spirit of this: > >> It is a wonderful world when it isn't terrible. > > And people are mostly wonderful when they aren't terrible. > > Thanks for a long, thought-out letter. > > Peace, > > Dave xponent <Bows> Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
