what else...

...but the hurricane.

i find it interesting that on such a large scale, we have these kind of problems. is it because mexico and canada haven't sent aid workers? i doubt it. is it because there isn't enough money being tossed its way? nope, they seem to be scrambling for more than enough money. it's humanity that's making this into a disaster following a disaster.

the thing that's preying on my mind as i read about rapes and looting and such is that i don't remember hearing about so much of this type of thing after the tsunami overseas. i remember the death toll rising and rising, but either i've blocked it out or something but i just don't recall reading about this.

does it take a larger natural disaster for people to overcome this behavior? would it have to be tens of thousands killed? why is it that they can loot and pillage and such and not refocus their efforts on removing the dead, finding what they need to survive?

i read in an article that people were looting a wal-greens type store for things that they needed--well fine, TAKE THEM. if you need the bandages, take 'em. i'm sure that your survival is more key than the fact that you're taking it and not leaving a fiver just laying about, and i definitely wouldn't categorize that as looting.

it's the people taking tvs and crap that's looting. there's not even electricity on which to watch the tv.

maybe i've gamed too long. maybe i'm just clinically nuts.

all i know is that if this was a situation that i was facing, i wouldn't want to sit in a football dome and just WAIT. i would want to assist, to do.

organize some of those 10,000 people and have them help with the dead. i seethe at the man who said that he would not leave his dog covered with a sheet, but it doesn't sound as though he's made a move to see if he could help. humans have been taking care of their neighbors since the dawn of time, dead or alive.

i understand that some folks have problems dealing with corpses, and death itself. but out of all those people in that dome, there have got to be a few who are willing to see what they can do.

again with the gaming too long. i keep considering the people who are waiting for aid and food and water--i wonder, because i'm not in that situation, what the local grocery stores look like. are they smithereens, emptied already? if they're not, get a group of people together and go shopping. aid is always flown in, dropped in crates and bags. sometimes i think you have to make your own aid, and businesses have got to have insurance that covers this, don't they? i guess that's a question for dan or other insurance experienced folks.

all i know is i read about this, and i think: the thing that's going to be remembered is not going to be the size of the hurricane or the massive efforts to assist. i have a feeling it's going to end up being the way people acted after the hurricane. yes, it's a natural disaster to have a swarm of wind and water destroy things on land. but i think it's just as much of a natural disaster to have humans who could be helping other humans causing more harm and destruction.

all this said from my living room 1200 miles north. i know i'm not there, i don't have the ability to drop everything and assist physically. but my inner italian grandmother needed to chastise the rapists, the looters, the people who are desecrating the good name that everyone else--all the rescue workers, the national guard, other people who are doing everything they can to help-- have given to humanity.

i'm doing what i can, from this distance: praying.

yes, it's a christian prayer, but i just love st francis.

*************

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.