Rights
We have rights and expectations. Men have gone to great lengths to protect our rights. Because of those rights, we have expectations. We have a right to free speech. We expect our school systems to supply a proper education. We have a right to protect ourselves. We expect to earn enough money to support our families.
We can defend ourselves from people who violate our rights. We have recourse when our expectations fail. What can we do when mother nature declares war on us? We just moved people from New Orleans to Houston because of Katrina. Rita is right on her tail and is forcing us to move these same people from Houston to other places. How can you protect yourself from that?
A lot of what's happened could probably be blamed on poor choice. It was a poor choice to build a city below sea level. It was a poor choice to live within x number of miles of the coast. Well, is anywhere really safe? I'm thinking we have a right to feel safe in our own homes. We have police to respond to complaints of burglary and intruders. We have fire departments that will douse our flames. Who will protect us from Mother Nature?
There are many things we can do to prepare ourselves for disaster. We should all check to see what we need to do within our own homes to aid in this preparedness. A simple thing would be to save the gallon jugs from the milk we buy. Wash them out and fill them with drinking water. This is cheaper than buying bottled water and is just as drinkable. Keep batteries on hand for flashlights and radios. Have a manual can opener available just in case one is needed. Keep extra prescriptions on hand and keep them together so they can be grabbed in a hurry. Keep extra cash on hand and gas in the tank. Things like this we can do.
Now if we could solve the bigger problem of preventing disasters completely, we'd be home free.
We can defend ourselves from people who violate our rights. We have recourse when our expectations fail. What can we do when mother nature declares war on us? We just moved people from New Orleans to Houston because of Katrina. Rita is right on her tail and is forcing us to move these same people from Houston to other places. How can you protect yourself from that?
A lot of what's happened could probably be blamed on poor choice. It was a poor choice to build a city below sea level. It was a poor choice to live within x number of miles of the coast. Well, is anywhere really safe? I'm thinking we have a right to feel safe in our own homes. We have police to respond to complaints of burglary and intruders. We have fire departments that will douse our flames. Who will protect us from Mother Nature?
There are many things we can do to prepare ourselves for disaster. We should all check to see what we need to do within our own homes to aid in this preparedness. A simple thing would be to save the gallon jugs from the milk we buy. Wash them out and fill them with drinking water. This is cheaper than buying bottled water and is just as drinkable. Keep batteries on hand for flashlights and radios. Have a manual can opener available just in case one is needed. Keep extra prescriptions on hand and keep them together so they can be grabbed in a hurry. Keep extra cash on hand and gas in the tank. Things like this we can do.
Now if we could solve the bigger problem of preventing disasters completely, we'd be home free.
posted by Vickie at 8:59 PM
4 Comments:
Damn, I thought you were going to tell me who's supposed to protect me from mother nature!
If I knew that, I'd just stay in my home the next time a cat 5 hurricane came barreling at my house, which stands beside a deteriorating levee, all the while knowing JUST who to sue when my house floated away!
If I knew that, I think I'd be rich. Isn't it a shame that we have such a suit mentality in America these day. Everything seems to be about law suits.
Yeah, an attitude of entitlement, and a lack of willingness to accept responsibility for ourselves and our actions. I can't even comprehend how many lawsuits are going to come out of New Orleans from people who should have been in some safer place than the neighbor's porch having a hurricane party.
There's actually already been a case where a woman claimed to be a victim of hurricane Katrina, just for the financial gain - and she wasn't from or in NO at all.
It's also what's bothered me the most about the aftermath - it's been so political, all finger pointing and mud slinging because the politicians want to gain votes, and because no one much has been willing to say that there's not a damn thing anyone can do to stop a hurricane, and it's no one's fault that people didn't heed the warnings.
*steps off the soap box* Sorry, I got carried away :)
No apology needed. I'm actually pleased that I got not one, but two, long responses from you. I must apologies that the subject matter isn't better.
If we wanted to get technical about it, we are all victims. We're victims in gas prices, in the monopoly of the news, and in the fallout of weather-related offshoots of the hurricanes themselves. Class-action, anyone?
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