Musings from Butrflynet

Musings from Butrflynet
Friday, September 02, 2005

Molly Ivins says it so well in her latest column, that nothing more need be said but "read it."

The most poignant points of the article:

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

...This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
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My hope for the rest of the nation in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, is that lessons on all levels of our society and government are learned and better preparations are made for each of our own varieties of local disasters. Stop procrastinating on that emergency survival kit for yourself and family. You can expect not to receive any help from anyone but yourself and neighbors for at least a week after such a catastrophy. Be better prepared for it.

If you can't afford to fully stock an emergency survival kit, at least do what you can. Gather neighbors together to make contingency plans and share resources for your immediate area.

Californians, especially need to take this situation to heart. It will seem like deja vue when the anticipated big earthquakes hit the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The loss of life and property will dwarf in comparison.

You can lessen the loss of irreplacible items such as family photos, important documents and memories. Take pictures of things, scan and upload those and other family photos to any of the free photo website hosting places. If the physical items are lost, you'll have the copies on the internet to reprint for replacement.

Butrflynet