How callous IS our nation?

[Stinky The Clown]

The horror of Katrina's aftermath will continue for quite some time. Stories of the survivors will be coming out for days and weeks.

Stories of the dead will continue far longer. The story in the area behind the levees will be months in the telling. The death toll will be a rolling tally until the last house is dried and searched. Until the last body is discovered. It will be gruesome and it will be painful.

While there is some evidence that bushco is attempting to suppress accurate reporting of the death toll, the numbers **will** be known.

And I believe the numbers will be staggering. This is quite possibly the greatest single-event loss of life by causes other than war in our nation's history. And it is pretty clear there's much complicity in it.

Just how callous will our nation be? Will they care? Sure ... everyone cares now. But how long will that caring last? How long will the nation be angry? Or sad? Or grieving? How long until the doings on the upcoming 'Survivor' series supplants the hellish reality that is the aftermath of Katrina?

Will the nation, as a whole, demand answers? Or will our nation, as it almost always does, just quietly move on?

Just how callous IS our nation?

[livetohike]

1. Some will just shrug their shoulders and return to their

everyday life. They will allow Bush and Co. to skate by without accountability. They will continue to sport their yellow ribbon magnets and fly their little American flags on their cars.

They will continue to ignore the debacle that is this President.

[ramapo]

2. Somewhere between very and extremely

Back to work today, surrounded by white, upper-class Bush lovers. Never mind the furious defense of their man...the jokes are starting.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. "...... the jokes are starting."

There are a few who continue to send me 'jokes' by e-mail. Unfunny, disgusting jokes. They started years ago with 'blue dress' jokes. They have gotten progressively worse. Progressively more racist. Progressively more hateful. Progressively more reflective of the tone set by the government.

And it disgusts me.

[sniffa]

3. you have to ask?

our nation doesn't care about foreigners dying, be it by our hand or another.

you'd think they'd care about americans, but it'LL be rationaLized through racist expLanations.

if anything, americans wiLL be pissed at having to sheLter, medicate, educate, etc, thousands of the dispLaced in their back yard.

hopefuLLy i'm wrong, but i know the ugLy american and he's hard to put make-up on.

[Wordie]

5. Yes, I'm afraid you're right, but there will be those of us who care, too.

I heard it right away...some guy standing at the bus stop going on about how they shouldn't rebuild (it will cost too much) and that people didn't leave because they were "smoking crack." Jeez. It made me so angry.

I, on the other hand, have been walking around wondering how people can act so normal with this going on NOW. I think we just need to keep making as much noise about this as possible: don't LET people forget or ignore this! This is really what the political fight is all about anyway: what is the role of government? We can't let Bush dismantle the federal government (except for the military, of course), and turn us into a third-world country. WE CAN'T LET HIM!

[sandnsea]

6. No day of mourning or prayer yet

People don't care all that much, don't kid yourself. Barbara Bush's attitude is the underlying attitude of more people than you'd want to believe; "it's working out pretty well for them".

[verdalaven]

7. Callous, or just shallow and lazy?

While at work this weekend I tried bringing up the subject of NOLA and was dismayed by the responses I received.

One young lady(a nursing student)didn't have any idea Katrina happened and asked me where New Orleans was located. (!!!) She said she didn't have time to watch the news, what with school, work, friends, ect.

A man I assumed was very informed, a future social worker and someone working toward his masters, said he didn't find out about Katrina until a few days ago and really didn't know much about what was happening, as his life is also too busy to keep up with the news.

Like these two, most people I quizzed were woefully uninformed.

I tried to pull out better responses from my coworkers by asking what they might do if what happened in NOLA happened here, in our community. The nursing student laughed at the idea of us having a hurricane in MI, as though I was STUPID. I actually had to clarify my statement(which was clear enough without having to cite the types of disasters that CAN happen in MI) saying....what if we had a monster blizzard, tornado, ice storm, flood(which happened to us, and FEMA/Red Cross was here within 24 hours, but then Clinton was Prez then, too) and how about chemical spills? Happens all the time! Or a terrorist attack, which is not unthinkable. No one had much to say after that.

I think this is an overall example of how shallow we've become as a nation. We have time to go to the mall, but not to read a lousy article in the paper. We have time to watch Survivor, but no time to crack a book. Maybe it isn't shallowness, as much as it is intellectual laziness. I don't know. It was frustrating.

edit for spelling.......and with a spell check available!