Katrina’s Wake – A Tale of Two Cities – Part II
Keith_Indy on Aug 29 2007 at 4:28 pm | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, social science
Thanks Michael for putting that up for me. This site (along with many of my other favorite blogs,) was on the banned list here at work for a while, and we don’t have the internet hooked up at home, having just moved.
The money quote for me is:
“We believe that when you rely on someone else, you’re at their mercy”
One can use New Orleans, and Katrina (or any calamity for that matter,) as a mirror into ones views of life. Here we have two vastly different outcomes and outlooks on life. One positive and the other negative. As they say, “What goes around comes around.” You can blame others for failures in your life, but that doesn’t divorce you from the choices you make.
There is something to be said for that good “old fashioned” American value of self-reliance. Of course, too many progressive/liberal/leftist/democrats, that means one is left all alone, disconnected from anyone else, and must only rely on ones own means. It seems odd that they would depend on faceless,far-away bureaucrats, before they would ask their neighbors for help, or even help their neighbors without any personal gain. To many others, self-reliance is not depending on handouts and being in charge of your own destiny. Asking family, friends, and your community for help, or pooling your resources together, as this Vietnamese community has done, is the perfect example of self-reliance.
The lesson, you can sit around waiting (and complaining) for help to arrive, or you can make do with what you have, and help yourself and others.
With the hurricane season getting into gear, and tornadoes popping up across the midwest, laying in supplies for a couple of days (or weeks if you have the budget and room,) is just the prudent thing to do.
And emergency supplies don’t have to cost a lot.
Popular Mechanics has some good info on this topic.
And surprise, surprise the government even has some good info on preparing yourself, your family, and even your community for disasters. http://www.ready.gov/ has been available since 2002
Two quotes on self-reliance that I try to live by are:
“Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst” and “Prior planning prevents poor performance and panic.”
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