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Sep. 1st, 2005 03:18 pmI had something fluffy and non-controversial ready to write for today, but it’s eluded me. Someone has got to come up with some gadget to fit to a steering wheel so you can (touch-)type while driving...
Katrina. Somehow it seems worse to me because it’s New Orleans. I know that isn’t necessarily rational, that it would have been just as devastating, or maybe more so, if it had hit San Francisco, or New York, or Atlanta, or Spokane, or Wyattsville, Kansas, or any populated area. But New Orleans seems to be special to me for some reason I can't analyse. Never been there. I have friends in the surrounding area (most of whom seem to be okay, thank goodness), but not in the place itself as far as I know. Not all that keen on jazz. Reasonably fond of Anne Rice’s earlier books, but not crazed about them. Why should this feel more personal to me because it’s this city and not another?
In reference to the comments about it being the wrath of god, someone asked (sarcastically) why those areas would be hit by divine vengeance when they mostly voted for Bush. That question seems to me (equally sarcastically) to answer itself, but I really don’t want to go there. God doesn’t make cars crash, or throw hurricanes at people, nor does s/he punish people for believing in something, however right or wrong. (Otherwise I would be a small charred spot somewhere.) Life isn’t that unfair. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
I’m still not convinced that the storm wasn’t somehow exacerbated, or diverted from its natural course, by some knock-on effect of global climate change, but there are probably too many indeterminate variables to be certain either way, and no moral to be drawn in any case. Global warming is not the fault of any one nation or any one individual, and certainly not of the people who died or lost their homes or families or livelihoods to the storm.
My heart goes out to everyone whose life has been hit by this horrible catastrophe.
Normal fluff will be resumed when I remember what it was I was going to write...
Katrina. Somehow it seems worse to me because it’s New Orleans. I know that isn’t necessarily rational, that it would have been just as devastating, or maybe more so, if it had hit San Francisco, or New York, or Atlanta, or Spokane, or Wyattsville, Kansas, or any populated area. But New Orleans seems to be special to me for some reason I can't analyse. Never been there. I have friends in the surrounding area (most of whom seem to be okay, thank goodness), but not in the place itself as far as I know. Not all that keen on jazz. Reasonably fond of Anne Rice’s earlier books, but not crazed about them. Why should this feel more personal to me because it’s this city and not another?
In reference to the comments about it being the wrath of god, someone asked (sarcastically) why those areas would be hit by divine vengeance when they mostly voted for Bush. That question seems to me (equally sarcastically) to answer itself, but I really don’t want to go there. God doesn’t make cars crash, or throw hurricanes at people, nor does s/he punish people for believing in something, however right or wrong. (Otherwise I would be a small charred spot somewhere.) Life isn’t that unfair. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
I’m still not convinced that the storm wasn’t somehow exacerbated, or diverted from its natural course, by some knock-on effect of global climate change, but there are probably too many indeterminate variables to be certain either way, and no moral to be drawn in any case. Global warming is not the fault of any one nation or any one individual, and certainly not of the people who died or lost their homes or families or livelihoods to the storm.
My heart goes out to everyone whose life has been hit by this horrible catastrophe.
Normal fluff will be resumed when I remember what it was I was going to write...