I think we can all take a lesson from the devastation and the aftermath of Katrina... Did anyone see this coming? I sure didn't... I have always had the opinion that tragedy and dire circumstances brings out the best in people. I may have to rethink that. I have an old friend who was of the 'survivalist' persuasion. As he would go on about how if there was ever a natural or man-made disaster that things would quickly take a dive into complete anarchy and lawlessness I would scoff and say people are better than that... I think we both have to rethink our opinions...
I saw alot of kindness and alot of horrors coming at me thru the tv. I guess there are as many reactions to hardship as there are people suffering. Good people will rise to the ocassion and the bad will quickly sink into animalistic behaviour. Unfortunately, I also now believe that the longer the hardship continues the more previously 'good' people will turn to a 'whatever it takes' mentality.
Despair does horrible things to people, the lack of leadership seems to be even worse. Time after time I heard the evacuee's say "There was no-one to tell us what to do!" So, is that what happened? Was it because there was no-one available to tell people not to steal, not to rape, not to murder, and apparently even, not to shit where you live. From the reports I've seen (and I realize here that you can't believe everything you see on the news!) this is what has become apparent to me.
Right or wrong, that is what I see when I watch the reports. I have come to believe that if someone of authority had stood up at that Superdome and got some organization going - pick up your trash and put it here... give me your names so we know who you are... misbehave and you will be punished... bathrooms don't work, you 30 guys go out back and dig a pit, everyone MUST use the pit to deficate, don't use the pit and you will be punished... everyone MUST share and help out their neighbors... I'm sure that it would not have solved all the problems, but I think it would have gone a long way to keep a cap on it.
Another option, to me, would have been to get some bullhorns in there. I'm not a religious person myself, but this is the Bible Belt here. Get the bullhorns in there and lead all those folks in some prayer. If you can't get the National Guard in there with their M-16s, at least get a little fear of God in there. There have been reports of the Scientology recruiters being on site. They have taken alot of flak in the past for 'taking advantage' of disasters as a recruitment tool. As much as I don't agree with that, I think they do have the right idea. Organized religion is a tool of control, tell people that there is an invisible being that sees everything that they do and knows everything that they think and that will hold them accountable for their actions and punish them with hell for all time if they don't do the right thing, and you may stand a chance of altering their behavoir.
Well.. I really didn't intend this to turn into a rant here, and I'll stop now. I guess my point here is there are alot of lessons to be learned from all of this. I know I have learned alot just from the little I have seen. Let us all hope that the powers that be are paying attention as well and something like this never has to happen again. I blame no one for the horrors, and I give alot of credit to those that kept their heads under such dire circumstances. I guess I'm mainly disappointed... I really hoped that my vision of all people rising up to make it through the disaster was completely correct and that my survivalist friend was completely wrong about the anarchy. It seems it is somewhere in between the two.
It's a sad lesson to learn.
Later...
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