My $.02 on the "looting"

[WolverineDG]

From a line in a song sung by the Beggars in Brecht's "Three Penny Opera"

First feed the face, & then talk right & wrong.

The people taking food, water, diapers, medicine are not looters.

Discuss.


dg

[Berry Cool]

1. In a world in which civil life as we know it no longer exists,

it is hard to know what to think sometimes.

It is hard for me to bear bad feelings against people who are taking what they truly need and can get no other way. The necessities, the essentials of life.

That having been said...I can't see why on earth people are taking luxury items. Electronics, jewelry, etc. Other than that the opportunity is there. Some of them see themselves as having been unfairly oppressed all their lives (whether or not it is actually true), and now they believe they are entitled, thanks to unforeseen circumstances, to "even the score" and just take whatever they want. Whether it is from a store (and human beings own stores, not just big bad corporations...human beings with lives and livelihoods that they, too, are losing) or from someone's house (and not every homeowner is a big bad robber baron either). They can rationalize it to death, but when I see people carrying around one box of Nike shoes, or a TV set, I can't help but think: There goes a common thief.

The great irony of it is, they are not even thinking. How are they going to enjoy their new toys? Where are they going to watch their big-screen TV? What electricity are they going to use to run it? Or do they think they can actually go and fence this stuff for stuff they can use? Somehow I doubt that would be so easy to do right now.

So the footage of people stealing from a Wal-Mart really amazes me. I'm sure some people think Wal-Mart is so big and bad that it is OK to steal from them. Or it's OK to steal from them if even the cops are doing it.

Me? I don't know. I'm not down there, and it must be unreal to be there. But I think that if I was, and I felt I had to take some things just to get by until someone could get me out of there, I like to think it would be food and water and toilet paper and things like that. And that I would take it with regret. I wouldn't be stuffing a bag with electronics and acting like it was Christmas.

[WolverineDG]

2. I'm not excusing those who take TVs & such

but I see no point in jailing someone who is taking what he or she needs to stay alive--food, water, medicine, diapers, clothing.

I understand that at some point, order does need to be restored (hence the mayor pulling 1500 cops off of search & rescue) or all hell will break loose. But if most people are only taking what they need to get to tomorrow, & it's stuff that's only going to spoil anyway, let 'em take it.

dg