Keeping a jaundiced eye on the corporate media.
Soledad O’Brien still making lots of offensive comments about the people who “refused” to evacuate. I guess Soledad has never been poor and assumes people stayed in the path of the storm - oh, I don’t know, to protect their collections of Civil War figurines or porcelain dolls.
Why oh why can’t we have a better media?
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Soledad is among the most useless of media twits. I’d rather watch a test pattern than her.
I meant to add to my previous comment that I have a friend living near the lower garden district who had no way to leave and has a house full of pets in a two-story home that he couldn’t possibly leave behind and to hear twits like Soledad makes me wish I had an “extra-special” button on my remote.
Not all of her criticism is undeserved. True, many thousasnds of poor people had no where to go and no way to get there. But many thousands more were just plain foolish. I saw an image last night of a helicopter rescue from the rooftop of what looked like a nice suburban home. I’ll bet this jackass had an SUV sitting in his driveway and just decided not to leave. Some rescuer had to risk his life because this idot ended up on the roof instead of 300 miles inland.
There is one in every disaster - like the old man on Mt. St. Helens. Here in Alaska a few years ago some idiots refused an evacuation order from a wild fire area. By the time they realized they couldn’t save their homes with garden hoses and made frantic calls for rescue, they were nearly cut off.
Mike, you’re right, of course. Foolishness abounds, as does natural human shock and disbelief in the face of imminent disaster.
I remember watching Keith Olbermann right after the Asian tsunami. I like Keith, but in one of his labored, quippy story lead-ins, he commented on the amateur video we were about to see. Somehow the film had been recovered undamaged. It had been shot by a tourist standing on the beach as the monster wall of water swept in.
I can’t remember exactly what Olbermann said, but it was the equivalent of, “Dude, why are you standing there? It’s a tsunami!. RUN!” Which is obviously what the man should have done.
Of course, that tourist had only moments to suffer from disabling shock ‘n’ awe, and Gulf Coasters had hours. But I can forgive that sort of immobilizing human disbelief. It’s very American: we have been so very fortunate, in general. Even though disasters happen regularly, and people die, I think we have this basic belief that we’ll get through somehow. I mean, look: I worry about not having enough money. But I don’t really worry about starving, ’cause I know that if I can’t buy food, I can steal it. This is America. All around me are places from which I can steal food. It’s hard for me to picture living where there’s no food to steal for a couple hundred miles around me.
So for the foolish people who had the opportunity - and enough money - to leave, and didn’t, I’d offer a helping hand, sympathy, lunch…and then in a few weeks I’d go back and smack them upside the head.
For the others, the people who knew they couldn’t scrape together money to get the car fixed and then buy gas and then pay for a motel, all in time to flee the storm, with their three kids and grandma who’s being stubborn, and…and all the other many stories, well, I can’t bring myself to deliver any smacks upside the head.
If all you have in the world is your little house and your little garden, and some stuff in the pantry, it’s hard to leave. Those who just have a little to lose can be the scaredest people of all. They make their bad decision out of a longing to keep what little they have, and then the wave hits and people like Soledad O’Brien talk and talk and talk, and then go home. If O’Brien’s home is wrecked, she’ll buy a new one and stay in a nice hotel in the meantime.
Think of the people Barbara Ehrenreich met in “Nickel and Dimed”. Some of them probably could leave their apartments and motels in an emergency. But there’s only so far they can go. Some of the people on those rooftops may be foolish homeowners, but some might be people from the trailer parks who got that far seeking refuge, and then got trapped. And remember, this all happened toward the end of the month, right before pay day.
Mike, you know I’m not yelling at you, don’t you? It’s just that people like Soledad O’Brien can’t seem to imagine literally not having enough money to pay for a few days at a motel, plus food and water. That’s a terrible failing for a journalist.
I get it. I do. What does the homeless family do if they can’t even get to the superdome on the other side of town? What does the old lady in the wheelchair do when no one even knows she is there? I get it. Clearly Soledad doesn’t. It just truley frustrates me that good, brave emergency workers have to risk their lives to save the idiots too. They do it without complaint and that’s what makes them the best people in the world.
There it is, Mike, and you said a mouthful. The emergency workers are absolutely the best folks on earth. Now, what can we do to help them? I’ve got one idea - I have a friend who’s an emergency worker here - wonder if he’d accept contributions so he could go down there and help relieve the workers in place for a while?
Contribute to the Red Cross. 1-800-Help Now
Or use the ARC’s online donation form.
I wonder if Soledad have ever been in a hurricane. I would hate to think how she would react if she was in the same position. OH WAIT! What am I saying. She is one of the elite. She is a NEWS? REPORTER.