Reading Current Events

Hey,

I am not sure how close you are following the stories on the New Orleans catastrophe; reading some of the articles, letters and reports I could not help myself realizing the tragedy behind it - and I am not talking about the awful situation in terms of supplies or similar - it is the human tragedy that really gets me. I am well aware that I am probably not able to imagine the chaos and devastation in which people live there these days, but I find it nevertheless shocking to read of rape and murder, of elderly and sick people being left behind, of shooting at rescue helicopters. I mean, what is this? Is it back to Hobbes? Back to "man is a wolf to man" (which assumes we have managed to leave this stage)? Is it just me sitting in my cosy office and wailing about the abrupt and localized decay of civilization in a situation I have never had to experience? Or has "civilization" simply not been developed for the bad times?

-marc

I was so busy moving that I didn't really notice what was going on until two days after the hurricane. All I heard was "hurricane in the US" and thought that America is used to dealing with hurricanes, they will manage. Then after two days I switched on the TV for the first time and crapped my pants. I had never realized that something like this could even happen in a first world country. I hope the situation will finally improve a little over the weekend.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

My cousin is in Baton Rouge (LA) and he said that even though the situation is not as bad there (because the hurricane didn't actually hit, but they got only 60 kmh winds and rains), now they have to deal with all the people who were evacuated from New Orleans; they were all transported there (if not all, the most part), because it is the closest biggest city, which they were sure wouldn't have had terrible damages.

Now he says that the situation is better, but during the hurricane he was without tv and without telephone. Oddly enough, the internet was the only communication mean that was still available. The university was closed for several days, and now he says that they are in lack of drinkable water, and the stores are always almost empty because of the high demand of the last days, and the impossibility to receive goods in brief times.

Fortunately he had bought some things before the hurricane, but you can imagine: he got there on the 10th of August, and doesn't have a car yet (he's planning to buy one to move around), and doesn't know many people yet (and the ones he knew moved away because of the hurricane). He was basically blocked there without car, and he said that the bus system stops working at 5 pm, and for him it was very difficult to manage to buy things in large quantities given all the things I have already mentioned.

Of course we are worried about him even though he's not in real danger, because he's one of the family. But I can't help thinking about those people who were living in New Orleans. I mean, even though they managed to save themselves because they left the city... well they will get back to destruction and desolation, and I have already heard that the city won't be inhabitable for a good while.

Only one question after the disaster: considering that the city is located for its 70% under the sea level... well couldn't they build better fortifications, thinking that something like this could have happened? I mean, America is subjected to hurricanes. We know it, they know it. And of course a city which is close to the Gulf of Mexico is a good candidate for one, and considering also that it is under the sea level... Now they have to deal with 6 meters of water, which could be even more, depending on whether or not the Mississipi will overflow in the following days.

Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".

Only one question after the disaster: considering that the city is located for its 70% under the sea level... well couldn't they build better fortifications, thinking that something like this could have happened?

The Netherlands have already expressed careful WTFs because when they last got their asses kicked by a flood in 1953 they spent some serious money to keep such a tragedy from repeating itself.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

Last Saturday, I felt drawn to pick up a book off of my shelf, which I had purchased on Magazine Street in New Orleans, back in 1994. Since its purchase, I had left the sticker of the bookshop on it's backside, and the bookmark from the New Orleans shop was still inside the book. I kept looking at it, and wondering how New Orleans was doing without my sister in it, anymore, and wondering why I all of a sudden cared, or was even thinking about New Orleans, let alone my sister. She left in a hurry two years ago. My brother-in-law is still down there.

Tuesday, I woke up very late for work, and rushed through my shower. My poet friend Paul called me to tell me about the hurricane, and while I was at work...I began to sink into a quagmire. I couldn't believe it had happened, and wondered how my sister's nerves were holding up wondering about her missing friends, not to mention how my nephews would feel after hearing the news. Then it gradually hit me how far-reaching the events would be... and how naive the US was to ignore the possibilty of such a thing happening as the devastation of New Orleans. We've known for years that this sort of thing could happen.

I guess I'm not the only one who has been living in a fantasy world. But now that the fantasy has been shattered, apparently the city is taking volunteers now and for the next estimated six to seven months, to help in the restoration of the city, and the rehabilitation of it's residents and businesses.

This isn't just going to fix itself overnight, and I don't understand why more people aren't concerned about it. Everyone here seems to know about the tragic events, but is quite blase about the situation. Are we just in shock and disbelief that something like that could happen, as you say, in a first world country? And we can't blame any Arabic countries for it (like we did with 9/11), because mother nature did it. That must just knock the government for a loop. There ARE some things that our government can't project onto other countries...

There are some things we can't stop from happening, but we certainly could have been better prepared. Maybe road repair, public works, and dams will be higher on the nation's priority list of things to allocate funds to in the near and distant future. One could only hope. We seem to be under the impression in this country, still, that we are invincible; and because of that, it seems to be hard for some of us, including myself, to swallow that mother nature doesn't give a damn about which country she hits...she just comes on. It makes you start to wonder just how strong your own 'house of cards' really is...

Meanwhile, I am chanting away in the midst of my messy life, and hoping that there is peace for those who have died, and hope for those who were displaced, and whose families and businesses and lives were destroyed overnight seemingly. And yet, it still seems so surreal. So otherworldly. So not happening several hundred miles away from me...But...IT IS. AND IT HAS...

If mountain goats like living at high elevations, why do none live in high rise apartment buildings?

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Sep 03, 2005.

This isn't just going to fix itself overnight, and I don't understand why more people aren't concerned about it. Everyone here seems to know about the tragic events, but is quite blase about the situation. Are we just in shock and disbelief that something like that could happen, as you say, in a first world country? And we can't blame any Arabic countries for it (like we did with 9/11), because mother nature did it. That must just knock the government for a loop. There ARE some things that our government can't project onto other countries...

There has been an interesting article in the Houston chronicle in 2001, after Allison had hit Houston. The author very accurately predicts possible consequences of a storm like Katrina - four years in advance. Hm.

-marc

Hey,

just wanted to point out a NY Times article (in English, although on a German site)...

-marc

That article in the Houston Chronicle was quite interesting, to say the least. If, as the article states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likeliest, and devastating distasters to befall the U.S. as, "almost prohetically" a terrorist attack on New York, the flooding of New Orleans, and a massive earthquake in San Francisco...then when is the massive earthquake due? Did I hear a pin drop?

Are we dealing with self-fulfilling prophecy here, or are there actually meterologists out there who can 'create' the weather, and geologists able to shift the tectonic plates, rather than just predict it? (Not to mention government officials with 'supernatural'[/sarcasm mode] powers as well? More like the power to ignore the obvious. :/)The word 'alchemy' springs to mind, as well. Yes of course, that sounds odd; but, I am still knocking on the particle board of my desk that I live not in any one of those major cities.

It sounds like we are knowledgeable enough as a country to see the writing on the wall, but we stick our heads in the sand. Something I've been known to do on an individual level...so I guess I am no better. *sigh* Must change that. And so should our country. What good does knowledge do if you don't use it? But, then again, some knowledge seems to already have been used inappropriately...so it seems. I find myself at a loss for words. That's highly unusual for me.:/

If mountain goats like living at high elevations, why do none live in high rise apartment buildings?

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Sep 04, 2005.

Only one question after the disaster: considering that the city is located 70% under the sea level... well couldn't they build better fortifications, thinking that something like this could have happened?

Yes, I definitely think they could have made better preparations... But it always seems to take disasters like hurricane Katrina for example, for people to realize that things like this will happen and that something should be done to help protect, sustain, or prevent etc.. (depending on the circumstances).

Hurricane Katrina is a tragedy that I will not soon forget... The unfortunate part is that this tragedy is something that will happen again, whether it be next year or 30 years from now, once everything has been re-built and brought back to normal. However, maybe next time places that are so much below sea level will take the necessary precautions to ensure that the aftermath of such a disaster will not be as intense or immense... Its too bad that Katrina had to happen first.

If I were a resident of New Orleans I wouldn't go back. I'd move somewhere else, I would literally pick up what little I had left and start over again somewhere completely new and less risky... I mean, you just don't know when nature will strike, or how hard it will strike for that matter... But there are always guarantees that it will strike eventually whether we like it or not... People have to stop thinking that just because something hasn't happened in 100 years, that it won't happen again... We're being ignorant. Wherever you live is not going to be 100% safe of course, but I sure wouldn't be living in a prime hurricane/flooding, tornado, or earthquake location (if we're only talking about natural disasters).

The hurricane was the cause... The obvious effect is death and destruction... But I just can't comprehend the other effects of Katrina, the attutides of some of the people remaining in New Orleans... Raping babies in the stadium, looting neighbors belongings, swimming in water contaminated with feces, dead bodies, oil and chemicals.....You get the idea, I don't want to say anymore.

Where the fuck are the minds of these people, did they get swept away amongst the winds of hurricane Katrina? I guess I just didn't realize how fast people can turn into complete savages.

Of all the things that I have lost in my life, it's my mind that I miss the most.

It's very possible that there will be more hurricanes yet this year, the season isn't over yet.
And they may be just as bad, or worse.
Global warming is part of the reason this one was so bad.
Warmer tempratures, warmer water, and part of the energy a hurricane gets is from the water.

As to what the people are doing, none of it surprises me at all.
The wild uncontrollable behavior shows us what we are all capable of.
It's easy to say that no civilized person would act like that.
Unfortunately man is capable of being the worst animal on the planet.
History is full of such accounts. Not all of them brought on by disaster.
We don't seem to be able to learn from history.

Now we are faced with seeing the worst of what humans are capable of.
It's on t.v., plastered all over the place.
And it's having the trickle down effect very fast.
Gas prices going up, faster than most any of us can adjust to is just the beginning.
We in this country are about to face problems that we haven't had to deal with in a very long time.
A hundred years ago this would have been as terrible, but people would have coped better than we are now.
Yes we have all this wonderful technology, but as this has shown us our technology is nothing when it comes to mother nature unleashing her power on this planet.

Cell phones, computers, televisions, cars, air conditioning and the list goes on, everything we rely on for daily life now, are completely useless when everything crashes.
That's alot to think about.
We are as helpless as new babies.

The ablity to survive off the land, knowing what plants are edible, where to find water, how to find fresh water, how to read the signs on the landscape to know what the next season will bring, all those things have been all but lost.

The madness that you are witnessing is just a preview of what's comming when everything collaspes.
You would think it would make people stop and take stock.
You would think all of this would cause people to stop and think about what we are doing to the planet and it's limited resources.
But it won't.
It will be in our faces, those of us not in the area, and after awhile the rest of the country will get bored or tired of hearing about it and go back to business as normal.
If you don't think so, take a look at recient history, and remember the intital reactions of people around you, and what happened as days passed.
Things just got back to "normal"
Not for the people living in the area, their lives, the ones who survived are changed forever.
But the rest of us.

I tend to think about what happened as mother nature responding to what man has done to the planet.
We are in part responsible.
We've done so much damage and now it's comming back to bite us in the butt.

Back in the seventies, early sevenities the scientists were trying to warn the world of the effects of global warming, some people listened and made changes in how they did things, but lots and lots of people just laughed about it, said it was all just a big scare tactic...
in short no one was listening. They tried to tell the world about things like this comming.
Now that it's starting to happen, people are wringing their hands and falling apart.
And because no one listened, we are going to face more and more natural disasters.
The really sad part of all of this is that until it comes and sits on the majority of peoples front door so to speak, they won't change what they are doing.

A side note, knowing that your building below sea level and doing it anyway, thinking that if you build something it will keep mother nature out was arrogant on the part of the people who designed and built the city of New Orleans.
For all our brillance, human beings can be rather stupid about things.
But we keep doing stupid things and expecting nothing to happen.

there is a question that I wish people would have thought to ask way back, just because we can build a city here and move the ocean back, does that mean that we should?
Think about what it would have ment if New Orleans would have been built further in land and not under sea level.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

I have to say that I don't think things will just up and collapse. Things will change slowly, insidiously, with a few dramatic events like the flooding of New Orleans. The way I have heard millenialists describe the destruction of civilization sounds a bit too 'facile' to me. It doubt that it will be that obvious. If one catastrophy happened after another, ad infinitum, that would follow the doomsday line of thinking. Yet, it isn't likely to be so obvious. If it were that obvious, people might actually pay attention.

As far as gas prices rising, it hasn't been long enough since the New Orleans tragedy for it to be a result of the dent in natural resources. This has to be the result of opportunism. Yet again, something inherently a part of the human animal.

I'm sure, as you say, people will just be lulled back to sleep, as they were before...we certainly didn't take advantage of the outpouring of sympathy for the 9/11 terrorist attack. Many European countries felt sympathetic towards our situation, and they quickly lost that sympathy when we went running around stomping our feet, so to speak, like little children. For sure, we'll likely go back to sleep on this issue, and do stupid things like taking crochet hooks away from airline travelers. But I digress.

Then again, people might actually wake up and do something. So many displaced relatives, friends and family will be coming out of the swamplands and bayous, some people are going to have extended families again...others will be in need of subsidy to get back on their feet. People across the country seem to be in 'denial' right now, but the hand of grief could reach up out of nowhere. I prefer escorting it right now, so it doesn't take me by surprise later.

I wonder what will happen to people's desire to be tourists in the 'Big Easy'? Will they just throw away New Orleans like a discarded love affair gone bad? Or will that desire to have a place to party get some people to care, who probably wouldn't care otherwise? As far as the future of 'the Big Easy' and the Mardi Gras celebration that so many look forward to every year...I'll bet my ass that St. Louis, where I live, at the other end of the Delta, will have an unbelievably large turnout for their second largest (now likely, first largest) Mardi Gras celebration in the U.S. Or people could go to Venice for Carnival... the other slowly sinking city, that has been sinking for longer than New Orleans has been around.

When I was there, I twice had to walk 45 minutes longer just to get back to my hotel, because I lost my way in the dark calles, when I couldn't go through St. Mark's Square, due to the water level being past the steps, and various spots of flooding throughout the city. When I was there, I heard there were all kinds of conflicting plans to slow the sinking of Venice. Not to prevent it, because I think they realize that it is inevitable. And look, it is almost a ghost town most of the year. Most of the people I talked to who worked there, commuted from other towns. And yet, even though people are moving away from Venice, and it is verging on becoming Disneyland...I wonder if they are any better prepared for the inevitable sinking of their fine city. I suspect they might be, but I could be wrong. And it makes one wonder what the charm is in living or traveling to cities like Venice and New Orleans that are so perilously threatened by water.

Personally, I always said that San Francisco, New Orleans and Charleston were my favorite U.S. cities. I fell in love with Venice too. I apparently like cities that are sinking, as well as cities with loads of charm and eccentricity; and I am not alone in this.

It seems humans just like living on the edge of water. Or maybe, just living on the edge.

If mountain goats like living at high elevations, why do none live in high rise apartment buildings?

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Sep 04, 2005.

I think your right about people loveing to live on the edge, both of the water and as close to something that could distroy them at any moment.

You know, I find myself leaning tord holding out little or no hope for the majority of mankind to grow into these wise and wonderful people.

I used to believe with extrodinary innocence that man was capable in the currant state of existance and mentality and activity, to grow to an equally wise state of existance.
But the more I see of the direction in so many arenas, the more I just stand there, shaking my head in astonishment.

There is a line in Starman which I love that says "you are capable of such beautiful things and such horrible nightmears"
And it would seem that mankind is bent tord doing the horrible nightmears more than the beautiful things....

Maybe I'm missing something here in all of this. When I see what working tord fulfilling who a person is ment to be and going with the flow of life produces, the peace with in one's self, the kindness and the love and gentleness that grows up out of that soil v.s. the bent tord being the worst that mankind is capable of, I can't help but ask why?

Maybe I'm missing something here...again. I know that everything has seasons, consequences for every action, and that if you plant seeds of somekind in a life those seeds will germinate and grow up to be something.
In my heart I don't want people to suffer. I love to see people whole inside, the outside is not so important here.
But if the inside is made whole, then doesn't it make sense that what they would do in this world would be done with thought for the children that we are only tending this planet for?

At the same time, I know that suffering can produce life, and life being the ablity to be more than where a person is right now.
So when I see what's going on in the world, all the suffering, what's happening in New Orleans, what's being lost and has been lost and how and what it's doing to the rest of us watching, I tend to think that maybe this was suppose to happen...probably cockeye'd thinking here.
It's hard to see the big picture here, and the long term affects.

It's easy to understand why thoes places would be among your favorites.
But there is all this wonderful, and it's there, and it's like it's been put deliberately put into the path of distruction...
I don't know...maybe man's greatest theory on beauty is that it should be ultimately distroyed so that we won't ever take it for granted, and charish it while it's in our mist.

Lots to ponder about all of this...

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

Yes...yes...this is long, but then again, I'm not master of the oneliner...

I'm running the risk of sounding pollyannaish in all of this, but... I think the moments within in which I find myself looking at all of the ignorance, destruction, blindness, and seeming lack of caring on people's parts and feeling that those elements are so overwhelming that it's hopeless; those are the very same times where right afterwards, I realize that I am slipping into exactly the same mode of thinking that the people I see who have maybe given up and aren't caring anymore, slipped into at one point in time. And they just fell into the abyss and didn't try to crawl out. Or no one helped them...

I think you and I Wendy, and a lot of people on here, and quite a few of the friends I now surround myself with believe in their heart of hearts something quite different. We ride the edge. We walk the razor's edge. We are not really fence-sitters, so much as we teeter back and forth on the edge of complete pessimism and total optimism. We know what we see in people and in ourselves that is 'creative', and we know what is 'destructive'.

The problem lies in realizing that it is okay to accept the possibility that great things can come out of great destruction. It isn't saying that it was okay for it to ever have happened, but it is no longer dwelling on what is irrefutably in the past...barring something like 'the oh so wonderful Butterfly Effect. Of course, New Orleans being washed away is horrible. But it can't be changed now. The past is over. What can be changed is the way we all view it. And you and I, and others, can so easily slip into feeling despondent because other people don't seem to care. And we think: What can we do? What can I do?

I caught myself thinking that anything short of going down there and helping with the hands-on clean-up wasn't enough. That's messed up. Every moment spent thinking that is diving into the same quagmire that everyone stuck in New Orleans is in, and that helps no one. But it is so easy to do. And it is so easy to misunderstand the laws of cause and effect. People talk about 'bad karma', and such. It isn't bad or good karma per se...it's just karma. And karma isn't punishment; that's a western misconception placed upon the word. It's been twisted. Karma is simply the physical laws of the universe. What happens here in this moment, triggers what happens in the next moment. People weren't bad, or deserving of the tragedy for this to have happened; they were just blind and hiding from the truth out of fear.

And we all know how fear creates chaos and destruction. Some people buy wholeheartedly into the idea of destruction as some sort of God, because they get so bogged down with all of the tragedies that are there in front of your face, or there if you look for them; and decide to side with the 'laws of destruction' in the universe. Others want to completely blot out destruction, and live only with creation. Creation is good right? Populating the earth, growing green things, seeing Spring happen every year...but what about when it runs rampant? Like cancer cells. Too much of a good thing.

Please don't misunderstand. I am certainly not saying that tragedies like New Orleans and 9/11 are okay. They aren't. But they have happened. We can neither go back and reverse that, nor can we ignore the fact that bad things happen. They do. Just like good things do. It's just the way the world has to work...in order to work. Unchecked destruction is death. Unchecked creation is death as well. It just takes longer to see that fact. The two must work together. It isn't bad or good, or wrong or right, or evil and angelic...it's just the dance of life. Seems a bit idealistic, but it isn't.

What happened is a horrible thing. Dead bodies floating in the water, children seeing those bodies floating, homes destroyed, businesses lost, people starving, stealing, shooting each other, killing each other, shooting their rescue helicopters like drowning victims climbing you to safety. It's so heartbreaking it makes you want to give up. Every time we fall as a species we want to give up. We want everything to progress forward in a positive direction all of the time, but it just doesn't. And the damage Katrina did could have been prevented. But it wasn't. That is the painful truth. It wasn't. So, here in the present, what do you do now? I have to go back to looking at my personal life, not to be self-centered, but to figure out where to start...I'll start with myself, and change can emanate from me from there.

As I have been watching my life spiral in and out of control on a personal level...the one thing I am struck with is that there are so many things you can do to change the outcome of a future event, but there isn't much you can do to change the past. As long as we live on a timeline, that's the honest reality for us. So, I can dwell in the past, or the recent past (which unfortunately, I do often...) or I can look at life as an adventure.

Of course, there is the distinct possibility, that if time truly is a construct of the human mind, and even though we experience time linearly, that the cosmos doesn't. Which could mean, quite likely, that if we struggle to focus on what we can do to repair the damage as much as possible, think about how to prevent future tragedies and such...we could actually affect the past. Not directly, but indirectly. Without our knowing. Maybe the fact that people out there have been plugging away in recent days, has changed the outcome, in all it's horror, into something that is actually less horrible; but to the average mind, doesn't appear to be so...

But never mind all of that. That's just me speculating, rambling, thinking out loud as usual. Take it for what it is worth. What I am saying is this: Say we consider that news article in the Houston Chronicle that was mentioned. If a massive earthquake in San Francisco is the third most likely projected tragedy to occur in the U.S., behind a terrorist attack on New York, and the virtual destruction of the city of New Orleans...........what can be done to set up safeguards and fallbacks for the city of San Francisco? Are they prepared? Don't we have time now, as a nation, to focus on preventing that potential earthquake from doing enormous amounts of damage? Maybe we should make time. Or make time write letters to our government representatives, to be a voice for change for everyone, rather than just doing our little parts. Nice talk, but will anyone do it? I hope so... and I am thinking, I for one, need to be paying better attention. Becoming more informed on issues like that.

As far as New Orleans, what wasn't done about the levee system and the wetlands, and the shrinking Delta set them up for this...the results of Hurricane Katrina are just that: results. So where do we all go from here? I'd say the anarchy that occured in the Delta of the Mississippi is partly a result of the fact that people are so disconnected from each other, even in the face of all our mass communication apparatus. Talking, community, banding together gets things done. There was so much miscommunication about what needed to be done.

The future doesn't have to go on a downward spiral...even now. Fatalism and possibility can coexist. What appears to be fate, can change drastically in an instant. And sometimes it is just one person creating the change. It could be any one of us. Click here. Though, I find myself quite often getting so freaked out by everything that I feel it is hopeless, I also have more and more days where I feel extremely hopeful. I think for me, it is the fact that I have committed myself to listening to my 'inner guidance' whether I want to or not. And then I don't miss the crucial 'cosmic consciousness' news broadcasts. Sometimes I don't understand them, but...

To sum up, you know, the other day, my friend Paul and I were walking into a party, and he said he was going to pick up this one beer bottle lying in the street. Then he said, what the hell good is that gonna do? One bottle? And I was having one of my highly optimistic moments, and I said, well, here's a scenario. Say there is this guy who lives in that house who gets really fucking tired of picking up beer bottles after all the drunken nights of revelry that occur in Soulard. Say he gets up tomorrow, sees this one beer bottle, and it is the straw that breaks the camel's back. He goes nuts. He looses it. Something snaps in his brain and he grabs his .357 and goes to the local McDonald's and shoots up everyone inside because he figures everyone deserves to die, because they are all stupid human animals. And he's just bought into the lie.

Or say, Paul picks up the beer bottle...and the man comes out the next day and doesn't see it this time. He doesn't have the trigger now, maybe he gets to work and someone has a cup of coffee with five creams and two sugars, just the way he likes it, sitting on his desk, piping hot, waiting for him. He smiles. The world is a wonderful place, and safe from his rampage. His life may change for the better that day, and in turn someone else's life affected by his...wouldn't it be better to focus on the changes we can make in the future, even on a tiny little scale, rather than focusing on what went wrong to the exclusion of everything else - so much so that we lose our perspective? Sure, be aware of the things that led up to the disaster so that you remind yourself and everyone else what to do not to end up there again...but then, be done with it. And think of what can be done today, on a tiny scale even, to change the world. I've had so many days where I didn't believe I was getting anywhere, and still kept up my belief that we could change as a species.

Consider this...if we are all like 'drug addicts' in the same room, stoned out of our gourds, and someone comes along shouting doomsday, or all of us do...that is the 'dream' we will likely have. It's the reality we create for all of ourselves, collectively. One individual drops from the exhaustion of believing in the ability of mankind to be good stewards of the earth, and the rest can fall like dominoes. Or, the domino wobbles, but rights itself, and no one falls.

My brain feels like a domino every day. It's a constant struggle, but it's the only hope I've got.

If mountain goats like living at high elevations, why do none live in high rise apartment buildings?

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Sep 05, 2005.

I find myself agreeing with what you say. And at the same time, because of how things go in my head standing back and in sort of a state of dazed and overwhelmed ...the best I could call this is nothingness...thinking.
Comming up with equations that make no sense, some that do, and knowing that things happen, that are neither bad nor good, they just are, and what's important is our reaction to them.
The mirror of the soul, that's the reaction.

More and more I want to find some place to just go to. Away, far, far away so my head can rest, and I can sort out the struggle that could end up taking me either way.
But I can't do that. I'm not allowed to do that according to what I know about the path of my life.

Something that crossed my mind somewhere between last night and this morning was the simple truth of seeds.
And as I thought about seeds and how small a thing a seed is, relatatively speaking, and how in order for the end result to happen the seed has to die.
There is no other way for the end result to happen.
Death is nessiary. Always.

In considering this, and what it means, it occured to me that for as long has existed on this planet, death was the beginning of life, somehow someway.

Your right about all of what has happened not mattering. Now it's done, and what do we do now.

The question rises up, maybe all thoes people that died, maybe this was their time.
And if this was their time, was this all really as bad and terrible a thing as we precieve?

See I've been reading articles and watching news casts, and listening to as much as I can stand of the president in all of this.
And it would be easy to react all over the board about this, and still nothing would be changed about what has happened.
That's just where that is. It happened.
It could have been prevented. But it wasn't.
Voices crying out for things to get fixed and changed were ignored.
Now none of that matters because no one can do anything to change it.

I love the fact of your sceneio, that what we do touches off a series of events.
The butterfly effect, which I'm in agreement with.

I think when all is said and done, the only thing anyone can do is deal with what effect this has had on them.
And go from there.
There are times when something is too big to grab ahold of and make any kind of sense of, so all you can do is deal with you.

If the doors open, and the way is clear follow that. It generally works out.

I just keep watching, and waiting, and my guts tell me more stuff like this is comming, I can't help those feelings.
It won't stop me from trying to be honorable, and faithful in my word.
I guess it's just what it is.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

Hey,

Science (the magazine) provides free access to articles with a focus on hurricane research.

Science and its publisher, AAAS, share with our fellow citizens the deep sense of loss occasioned by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. As an aid to policy makers, scientists, and the public in understanding the large-scale forces and smaller-scale scientific, social, political background to the disaster, we are making available, free to all visitors via this page, this selection of past Science articles related to hurricanes, coastal disasters, and disaster policy.

-marc

That's a good thing...thanks:)

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

Or has "civilization" simply not been developed for the bad times?

harold_maude's comments in regards to this had me nodding in agreement more than once, but I would also venture to say that a lot of the seemingly irrational behavior (ie. building cities below sea level) can be ascribed to people's "sense of place", a grounding in who we are based in no small part on where we grew up, live, work, play, etc.

As an example, I was reading the local newspaper and saw that numerous individuals were being thoroughly lambasted for suggesting that the city be moved rather than rebuilt. Not for technical reasons, but for their supposed "insensitivity" to the inhabitants.

Presumably the intent was to communicate a message that said, "We care about you and don't want this to happen to you again." But many instead heard, "Your city is unimportant and should be abandoned." Their "sense of place" was (in their eyes) being attacked, being devalued.

I can only imagine that the nihilistic madness that drove people to shoot at rescue helicopters was in part founded on their loss of this "sense of place". Having no home, being in what surely must feel like a post-apocalyptic city, will bring out the more dramatic aspects of the "man is a wolf to man" behavior that we haven't left, just sanitized.

"Homo homini lupus?" If it was so 400 years ago, I think it is so now. People are people are people; the externalities will change, but not the essence.

"There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it." -GBS

Losing history, family, art, culture all thoes things...that's what happened there.
If they had built up instead of digging down would have maybe made a difference in what was lost.

But more than that, the idea that man can control or stop nature is arrogant anyway you look at it.
We are like grains of sand in universal terms.
Even in relation to the earth and it's size.

Look at yourself, your so tall, weigh so much and take a certian amount of space here on this planet.
Then look at the city your in, and compare it to you, it's bigger, then look at the state your in and then the country, and so on.
It gives one a perspective that is unique.

I'm sorry that New Orleans was devistated, I just think when people pick a place to build a city, and don't consider everything it's a mistake.
Look at the city of Pompey, I think I spelled that right, anyway, the builders of that city built this magnificant city in the shadow of a Volcano.
They had to have known that it wasn't a great idea, but loved the surrounding area, so they did it anyway.

There is a town that in Washington state that has been built in the shadow of Mt. Saint Hellens, and it's a very active volcano.
They know that it could again errupt.
And inspite of what it could do, putting their lives and their world so to speak in danger just to live there, is not wise.

This is the one that really baffels me of all the places to build something, the nucular power plant on the San Andras Fault line.
From my perspective to build something beautiful, where you want to live in a place that could end up distroying you and everything around you is not a great idea.

I would love to see the city of New Orleans built again, but this time building it further in land. Rescue and restore what they can from the rubble.
Or doing this, rebuilding the city, but build it on top of the what remains of the existing city.

Seattle is built that way. The first city was built in the shadow of Mt. Rainer, and it blew and burried the city, so they built it again, in the same spot on top of the old city, and then dug down and restored what they could. You can take tours of the old city.

It's only a matter of time as to when the mountian will go again, it's an acitve Volcano, and for all it's culture, all it's beauty, doing that was bad planning in the first place.
But people don't think about that when building a city in the shadow of something that could distroy them.
All they see is this amazing place and we want to live here because it's so beautiful.

Doing that is man in his belief that he can control the uncontrolable. But you can't control mother nature, no matter how hard you try.
And because of that belief that has persisted through history we end up with what happened.
People keep building along the Missippi river, inspite it's nature to flood, they loose everything, and keep rebuilding there.
And when they get flooded out, and their house, memories and everything else is wiped out they are devistated.
It makes no sense.

It reminds me of the guy who goes to the doctor complaining of chest pains.
The doctor tells him to take off his shirt, and his chest is covered with porcupine quills.
The doctor noticing the obvious, asks him about this.
The man says he loves porcupines and can not resist the urge to hold them...but can't understand why his chest hurts so much.

The people who built the city of New Orleans must have had a clue, at least that building in a delta, and digging it out so they were under sea level and it being in an area that has hurricanes wasn't a great idea.
They believed that by building levees they could stop the sea.
They believed they could stop mother nature from doing damage.
So they did it.
And they were wrong, and as a result, thousands are dead, more are dying, and the art, the history, the culture is distroyed.
And they will build there again, knowing the exact same things.
And somewhere along the line it will happen again.
They will be horrified at the devistation and try to find the perfect way to stop mother nature...but you can't.
You can try, but she will have the last say.

I'm not heartless about all of this, I just believe that it was a mistake to put the city there.
And yes they should rebuild it, it's worth it, but this time use some wisdom in doing it so that when the hurricanes come, and they are saying now because of global warming more of the same kind of storms as katrina will be comming, there isn't the same kind of loss of human life, and everything else.

This is all just my opinion after all, and maybe I'm not seeing something or missing the big picture in all of this.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.