Corwin vs Volcano (Anybody Seen FEMA?)

After a while it gets demoralizing to live amongst a seemingly never ending flood of people who see the world diametrically opposed to how I see it. I read somewhere that George Bush doesn't care about Blacks in New Orleans. I read somewhere else that FEMA didn't do anything until 3 or 4 days after hurricane Katrina came ashore. Certainly, if you watched CNN, or Fox News, you didn't see much in the way of relief. It's all around me here in California. People at work, at restaurants, in line at the bank, all commenting on how terrible it is that the government didn't care enough to prepare for this big storm.

I wanna slap some people silly

I remember that on the Friday before the storm hit land, my mother was on the phone telling me about how she was back online with FEMA and along with three thousand other big rigs, she was at some airforce base in Northern Louisiana loaded with water/MRES/ice. I remember when the wind died down, they started running supplies into three states worth of disaster. I remember it would be a 36 to 48 hour period of time before I'd get a call from her telling me where she was because there was no cell service where she had been.

I didn't see that on the news. Ever. Mother sent me pictures of the thousands of trucks lined up. She sent pictures of supplies being unloaded where people lived in hastily setup tent farms. I saw nothing of this on the news. On a message board I read and post on, the usual political fights were taking place. I talked about what my mother was doing and what she told me. One guy who seems to hate anything even vaguely related to the so called "Right" basically called me a liar. He had done a web search and found No reference to any large truck convoys working for FEMA" anywhere on the net. He had also heard nothing about this on the news channels.

On another front, I have friends in the military from the days of my career who tell me that the media reports nothing resembling the truth about the war in Iraq. Other than the body count that is. They are real good about reporting the things that Al Jazeera want us to see. Mother told me about a news crew showing up in Mississippi while she was unloading supplies in a ravaged town. She told me about how the media interviewed no one in the convoy, shot no photos of it and filmed only destroyed homes. They then packed up and drove off. All to easy to imagine the same thing happening in Iraq.

But I don't know more than 1 or 2 people out here in Northern California who believes that. I can sense that my views on the subject are listened to (barely) by my associates and dismissed as fast as spit on a hot grill. Dismissed as one of those brainwashed guys from the military. Dismissed by some jackass who has never left the state 'cept for skiing trips at Lake Tahoe, let alone the country. I'm not totally alone up here in the Bay Area, but others who see what's going on seem to have stopped caring. After all, what's the point? People are going to believe what they see on TV regardless of the truth. Why get all worked up about it?

Maybe that's the point. Those of us who are not blind to the facts, are so outnumbered there is no point in bothering to tell what we know. Nobody believes it. My mother who was THERE, has had it explained to her by people who saw it on the news that she does not know what she is talking about - Nobody helped those poor people. Isn't that rich?

Now before you label me as a right wing nut, understand that I know the war in Iraq ain't perfect and wasn't the best course our country has ever embarked on. I would not have invaded had I been in charge. The response to hurricane Katrina was flawed on several levels. But I'm reminded that it's huge. I know something about logistics and how hard it is to truck things into places under the best of circumstances. Let alone this one. My mother's rig has hundreds, more likely thousands of dollars of damage because it was driven into places that were wrecked; Roads included.

The final insult comes from a bored late night surf of Craig's List. The personals aren't terribly useful but they are entertaining in a morbid sort of way. I've yet to read a "Woman seeking Man" post that any guy I know measures up to, but that's a whole other topic. No, the final insult was that there was one tonight, that a guy could almost manage to fit, but near the end, it said that if you had a military background, voted for Bush, or Arnold, and had any Right Wing leaning, gun owning tendencies, do not reply. Only men who meet the above criteria (tall, great hair, hot, great body, generous meaning willing to buy her things) AND voted for John Kerry should respond.

Romance based on political viewpoint. Like I said - Demoralizing. Seems like everybody's mind is made up. If you don't have the same opinion as I do, piss off. We're not gonna be friends, or anything else. I pray (while I still have the right) that this is not America as a whole, or America of the future.

-Corwin