On Sep 4, 2005, at 11:51 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote:
I hear you Dave and am sorry it came out that way, and I partially
agree. The part I don't agree with is I don't believe the majority of
people grieve by ignoring an issue.
I found your explanation in a message to Warren(?) very clear: you just
don't always express yourself well. As the guy who posted a message
containing the words "This is an AOL chat room" when I meant exactly the
opposite, believe me when I tell you that I accept that you didn't mean
to demean us all, you were venting about what you perceived as too much
focus on the least important aspects of the disaster.
I do know that it really bothered me after the tsunami that it never
was discussed, and I don't think varying grief modes can explain that.
Here's where your long relationship to this list must make a big
difference. Since I've been here, it's mostly been a place for political
wrangling. I wouldn't have expected a great outpouring of emotion here.
I wouldn't have turned here for that sort of thing, perhaps because I am
so well-served in that capacity by my friends, family and church. I'm
intrigued to know that Brin-L used to be a community in that sense, too.
I feel that caring enough to speak up is worth something. I feel Damon
and Debbie and Dan and Gary had something to say and cared enough to
do so. You did also (though I disagree with giving to the Salvation
Army, but that is a subject for a different post). Several here also
made donations and that is of even more value.
Yeah. Not sure what your issue with the Salvation Army might be, and so
we can leave it for a separate thread, but Nick has a long association
with them, so I mentioned them in the context of his contribution.
My next message listed four or five other charities through which folks
could contribute. I chose to contribute through Habitat for Humanity,
because I've been involved with them since I did a work trip to the
western highlands of Guatemala in 1991.
But silence, I don't know if that is worth a whole lot.
It does if there's not much to say. I watched hours and hours of
coverage the night before your post. My wife and I were mostly
speechless at the horror of it all. Only television _has_ to go on
and on about the horror of it all.
Can you understand how or even why the discussion of gas prices and
the lack of discussion of a national crisis stood out to me?
I am beginning to understand. As you said, your initial message didn't
speak your true intentions clearly. Maybe you could have just launched
into a discussion of the national crisis without couching it as what
at least a few of us felt was a personal slight, but again, you said
that your message didn't convey the full range of your feelings.
Granted, I live in this region. Geographically, I share the same type
of enviroment as the effected people. I have travelled through all
those places, and have stayed in many of them. I've known people from
these areas all my life. I share the same danger they do, and it could
have easily been me. I probably should care more than most of you in
the sense that it is more personal for me.
Perhaps better for another thread, but I have always had a problem with
this. People are people and suffering is suffering: why does there
always
have to be a local angle? This strikes me as television thinking again.
I don't live on a tropical island, but the horror of the tsunami struck
me. I don't live in a flood plain, but the suffering in New Orleans
strikes me. I wasn't a dirt-poor indigenous Guatemalan during their
civil war, but I knew that we were alike enough in our humanity to move
me to fly all night then ride a bus through heavily-armed checkpoints to
Quetzaltenango to help them build houses... The point being, of course,
not how great I am for having done so, but that what makes us alike is
our humanity, and not our address or language or heritage.
I hope you can understand that the insult was not so intentional and
was mostly a byproduct of an attaboy for Damon and Debbie.
I've definitely gathered that from your other posts. I appreciate that
you showed your appreciation to your fellow carers, and I apologize for
having interpreted your message in a negative light.
Dave "Hurt (though not Celine-Dion-on-CNN-yesterday-hurt) by the
suffering in the South" Land
Dave, I don't have a doubt that you are willing to share the pain. But
what happened with Celine Dion? I didn't catch that.
She was interviewed by Larry King and was practically apoplectic with
anger and grief. King kept trying to say how great it was that she had
given a million dollars to the relief effort and trying to compare her
gift to that of other celebs he had on his "how you can help" show, and
she got more and more incensed at him for doing so. Mostly, she was
teary-eyed, sad and deeply frustrated with the glacial pace of relief
efforts, and, I think, frustrated with his celebrity-butt-kissing.
I've never thought much of Dion, but my opinion of her went up a
couple of notches in that interview. She dismissed her gift over and
over again. What is money, after all?
At least as impressive was New Orleans native crooner Harry Connick,
Jr., who, though he never shed a tear on camera, was on his way back
into New Orleans to do whatever he could, even if it meant just standing
on the back of a truck handing out water bottles. I wish anybody in a
position of power in this situation would exhibit his level of humility
and concern.
BTW, here in Houston our CBS affiliate is broadcasting WWL-TV on one
of their HD bands. It has been a real eye opener. I may want to
discuss what I've seen and heard later when I've digested it, but it
pretty much follows from the NO newspapers open letter to the
administration in todays paper. Can you spell lambasting?
I can, and I'm seeing plenty of it, but I'm trying to resist blaming,
because it can't possibly do any good at this point. People want to
point the finger at Bush's shifting of funds from the levee repairs
to Iraq, but there have been TEN presidential administrations since
the Army Corps of Engineers' described plans to shore up the levees.
Right now, there are people that still need to be removed from their
rooftops and people who will definitely die without fresh water and
some food. All the blaming in the world isn't going to save one life.
Later will come the investigations, and, I'm sure, testy discussions
on Brin-L :-).
There has been more and more good news since yesterday. The Kuwaitis
want to donate 500 million and that is just a wonderful thing to
hear. A
friend of mine, a reporter for the Pensacola newspaper finally got
back
to me. I'd been quite worried for her only to find out she had been
busy
doing good deeds for people in Biloxi.
Even Iran and Cuba have made offers of support. I'm just cynical enough
to wonder if some of those offers aren't intended to have a bit of a
poke
in the eye in them, too, but I am trying -- really trying -- to take
it all
in the spirit of this:
It is a wonderful world when it isn't terrible.
And people are mostly wonderful when they aren't terrible.
Thanks for a long, thought-out letter.
Peace,
Dave
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
