If I Weren't So Angry, I'd Cry

This morning when I checked my email I received something that has really got my blood pumping, and not in a good way. It was from someone I am very close to which is only of importance when you see my response. (I will keep the sender anonymous, except to say they are family and even with family there are times when I think it is important NOT to hold your tongue.)

So this email, or should I say forward (which my husband would immediately question why I read it in the first place because most of those things are trash, aside from a few that are truly humorous and some actually informative on occasions), and it started out quite harmlessly. It was apparently (or should I say supposedly) authored by a Denver, Colorado resident who spoke about the recent snowstorms:

"Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City", we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands."

OK. Seems harmless. Not really sure where this is going and then I got to the next paragraph. Now, I won't reprint this email in its entirety because I am so disgusted by it. I won't give the author the satisfaction, but I do want you to see what I'm reacting to so here are a few excerpts:

FYI: George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.

Obviously, this "person" is referring to the situation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There were a lot of things that went wrong there starting with not evacuating people who had no transportation to get out of the city themselves; Not having any adequate shelter to house and feed the people who were left in the city during the storm; And not having, at a city, state or federal level, an effective plan to get to those who were drowning in the great floods that resulted from ineffective levys that were supposed to prevent New Orleans from being drowned.

Anyway, the author of this email continued to illustrate how the great people of Denver simply picked themselves up by their bootstraps, unlike those "other" people who just complained and expected someone to come help them.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
. . . I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

OK. I must stop here. I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to do all of those things, but IT WAS ALL UNDER WATER!!!! It was never a question of simply "digging out." And I know I shouldn't let these things bother me, but I do. I seethe over them. I just can't believe that not only are there people out there that write this trash, but there are people out there that pass it on as "interesting," "something to think about," and so on. What it is is racist and I called it as much when I sent my reply back to the person who sent it to me:

RE: Thousands of folks in Denver weren't evacuated to a convention center without adequate food, water and bathroom facilities. They weren't then locked in the convention center and told they could not leave even though there were people who had died in the convention center and were now rotting on the floor. They were not stranded for days on their roofs because the water was so high it was the only chance they had to prevent drowning.

The government failed New Orleans by not providing the thousands of people living there without transportation a way out of the city BEFORE the disaster. And I haven't heard of how many died in this snow event of "biblical proportions" in Denver, but I'm pretty sure it's nowhere close to the more than 1,800 people who died in New Orleans as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina. And I'm pretty sure that Denver has dug out and people can use their cars and go to the grocery stores and go about their lives. New Orleans was underwater for weeks and there are still people who cannot go back to their homes because of the dangerous mold, sludge and sewer waste that covers their walls, floors and streets.

You're right, the government doesn't owe anyone a living. But they do owe us leadership in times of crisis, and in New Orleans they did not get that. They didn't get it before the storm when they were told it was safe to live there; that the levys would hold back the water and when the levys failed they didn't get it after the flood waters rose. Did you know that there were National Guard soldiers standing on a bridge that led out of the city, to places where the flood waters weren't so high, and they refused to let people cross due to the orders they were given? They should have been leading those people out to safety, and yet it was like trying to cross the border into another country without the proper papers - all within the borders of the United States of America, home of the free.

It was deplorable and I am ashamed of how the government (mis)handled the situation and continues to drag its feet. I don't pay taxes so the government can continue to make the rich richer (although in reality I do, that's not where I want my money going) - I pay taxes so that my fellow human beings have help when they need it; their children get an education; and as few people as possible have to go hungry and homeless. The people of New Orleans believed they had been abandoned and I don't blame them. Put yourself in their shoes for one day during that week of horror and you tell me that they don't have a right to be angry.

I'm glad that your friend in Denver fared well in the blizzard ... Maybe it has to do with snow being more manageable than water - they say water damage is the worst. Maybe Denver was just more prepared because they are used to heavy snowfall and there was a plan in place. Maybe Denver just has more money allotted for natural disaster cleanup - after all they certainly have more wealth.

What I do know is that Denver is a city of just under 2.5 million people where 80% of those people are white and the median family income is about $48,000 per year. New Orleans (Orleans Parish where the hurricane hit hardest) is a city of less than 500,000 with just over 70% being non-white (including African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc.) and the median income for a family was less than $33,000 per year ... Maybe that has nothing to do with it, but maybe it does. If you ask me, whoever wrote this email sounds like a racist and I won't be passing it along.



So, yes, while I agree that this is trash, that I shouldn't let it bother me, etc. etc. I also think that it's time to respond, to be vocal and let people know that we recognize trash when we see it and not leave it out on display as if it were not the toxic sludge that it is. Trash goes in a trash can (some things cannot be recycled), is incinerated and the energy produced should be used to heat someone's home or provide them with electricity - then, and only then, will this kind of sludge not be so hazardous.

My rant is now over.

Day Twenty Six: Post Christmas Recovery

I literally did nothing today. No, I'm not exaggerating. I did nothing. No shower. I didn't change out of my pajamas (for like the third time over the last week). I haven't brushed my teeth yet. (I will before bed. Don't be too grossed out.) It was just one of those days.

I got up late because I was up late. Then at 2 a.m. my younger son came into my bedroom, which he does quite often so I wasn't surprised, and climbed into my bed - causing my husband to vacate our bed - and before my husband was out the bedroom door my two year old was throwing up. So after stripping the bed, scrubbing the mattress, opening the window and closing the door to keep the odor from spreading, I joined my two year old (after he had had a 2 a.m. bath) in his bed while my husband took the couch.

The good news is that it was just the one incident of sickness. He was fine today and was eating regular food by dinner. I, however, was exhausted and so I slept in. Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning up from Christmas, my husband cut what appeared to be at least one ton of cardboard and then we vegged out the rest of the day.

Oh, I have had probably no less than a pound of chocolate today. I can't stop eating it. It's sitting right in the middle of my kitchen which is in the middle of my apartment and I can't help myself from grabbing a piece every time I walk by (and then there are the times when I go into the kitchen just for the sole purpose of grabbing a piece). Rewind two months and it's Halloween all over again for me. No self control. Aerobics classes can't start back up soon enough.

I think the Christmas tree is coming down tomorrow. So are the decorations. Time to start getting back to "normal" around here. Although now that the holidays are coming to a close it's go time for our dreams of owning our own home. Time to start packing - which I am dreading. I'm looking forward to ridding out some of the crap we've collected over the past five years, but completely dreading the actual act of packing up and moving. But all of that is being outweighed by my late night sessions of planning what furniture is going where in the new house and what things I want to buy and what colors I might use to paint this room and that room - I can't believe our dream of owning a home is a little over a month away.

It certainly was a very Merry Christmas and I'm looking forward to a very Happy New Year!

11:58 p.m. - P.S. OK. I just checked my email and I had one message waiting. It's a parenting bulletin that I get weekly. I signed up for when I was pregnant with my first child and they update you every week during your pregnancy and then they give you developmental milestones, suggestions for games and activities you can do, etc. after the birth. These days I just skim through it (I've gotten a couple of great recall announcements through it) and usually delete it within five minutes. I stopped reading the whole milestones and "what your child should be doing," stuff once I had a second child, but have just never unsubscribed from the mailing list.

Anyway, guess what the very first topic of information is this week? "How to Raise a Spiritual Child." Uh, what? Could it be that I'm more widely read than I though I was? Are the folks over at Babycenter reading my blog? CRAZY! Or more likely I think it's the universe - it's wonderful how she does that. You put the question out there and she sends you answers; and I stress answers, plural, because the greatest thing is that she doesn't force anything - she provides possibilities, options, ideas. It's still up to me to choose.

But I think I'll actually read this article. (Not tonight. I'm too tired.) Just to see what it has to say. I mean, how can I not give it a chance with a subtitle like: "Whether you belong to an organized religion or follow your own spiritual path, get ideas on how to nurture your 2- to 4-year old's or 5-to-8-year old's sense of spiritual wonder" or "How to keep your child's materialism in check."

Even on days when nothing happens - I can be absolutely amazed.