Two of three--

[alfreda89]

We've heard that Bob Aspirin is currently alive, and waiting for evacuation. Those who have been checking out the news know that this is not entirely comforting.

New Orleans folk have been shooting at helicopters trying to get the sickest people out of hospitals. Or shooting at boats trying to deliver emergency supplies. I know they are terrified, but the people of New Orleans aren't handling this as well as the people of New York handled 9/11. Granted, there was only one catastrophe in NYC that day (NO has faced first a Category 4 Hurricane and then massive flooding)--but the people of NY didn't know that. They didn't know if the next stage was gonna be bombers, in the air or on the ground.

New York did us proud. I grieve for the people of New Orleans. They've lost more than their city.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I know they are terrified, but the people of New Orleans aren't handling this as well as the people of New York handled 9/11.

I was thinking about this yesterday, but I realized there's an important difference between the two situations. In New York, the people of the city were still, physically, together. It was (relatively) easy to feel that pride in being a New Yorker, when you were among your fellow New Yorkers, working together.

But the people of New Orleans are scattered over like a quarter of the country right now. Those left behind are not the whole city, with the pride that goes with it, but only a portion of it--a portion that probably feels abandoned by the rest of the city, the ones who got out.

It's much harder to have that sort of can-do pride of place, under such circumstances. I'm not sure I could pull it off, if I were there.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

You have a good point. Having to create a safe place for a group of people and defend it until the National Guard shows up--and then have the guard not know if they can trust YOU--is a horse of another color.

We all hope we would behave well, but we don't know until we are faced with the catastrophe. I hope we never have to know. I fear for tourists who have no idea if they're anywhere close to the safety areas--if they're in previously dangerous areas--

"The Department of Home Security" failed us horribly.