The Big Un-Easy

[mallorys_camera]

One thing's for sure: Katrina does not bode well for the inevitable nuclear-device-in-a-cargo-container scenario. The center is not holding.

If the New Orleans devastation had been the result of a terrorist strike and not a natural disaster, would survivor relief have come faster, one wonders? Does Bush save his big guns for his increasingly paranoid obsession with Iraq and the Evil Empire? Or what if the majority of people who couldn't evacuate New Orleans had been white?

I've spent much of the past two days crouched in front of a television screen, frantically clicking, remote roulette – Fox News has the most sensationalistic coverage though they got to it late, boring us as late as Wednesday night with stories about Shiite stampedes; MSNBC has the best liberal slant; CNN is the most reliable. Of course, only so much information dribbles out over an hour so when they start to loop the video feeds and the same disturbing photographs for the fourth time, I have to run over to my computer, fire up my browser, frantically click in www.nytimes.com, www.latimes.com.

This is some kind of obsessive compulsive behavior.

Still. The Destruction of New Orleans is the biggest national event that is likely to happen within my lifetime (unless the Mayans are right, and the world ends in 2013) and I feel compelled to bear witness – never mind that I'm not seeing anything that millions of others aren't seeing too, never mind that I'm so far removed from the primary source.

It's kind of like binge drinking.

And I can feel myself going nuts behind it. Can't focus on anything else. Went to a planning meeting yesterday afternoon for Robin's science camp retreat – I do so like Robin's sixth grade teacher, the sane and literate Mr. Spedding! They are spending a week up near the Sonora Pass, hiking and rock climbing and doing the ropes course. The pleasant little satellite classroom smelled like chalk dust, National Geographic maps decorating its walls. On a table near the wall sat twelve different brands of paper towels, the children's first exposure to scientific method: which paper towel is the most absorbent?

Mr. Spedding did a slide show for us – here are the Dardanelle Cones, note the classic U-shaped glacial valley – and all I wanted to do was scream where are the bloated corpses? where is the twenty feet of stagnant oil-slicked sewage and the victims and the looters and the incompetant FEMA guy blowing smoke out his asshole? And I had to remind myself: you're not watching television now. You're in a room three thousand miles away from New Orleans with a group of adults who are sane. Try to maintain.

Comments

[usedmonsters.livejournal.com]

Love the title of this entry. Maybe that group of adults are all just pretending to be sane like we are.

I was watching coverage last night too and just becoming sickened by the feelings of desire to help but being unable to. Strange thing, being a voyeur of this televised slow-motion death watch.

Wouldn't it be great if there were actual leaders around anymore?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Leaders! There's a concept!

Yeah, I have to say, I'm sick of the miracle of instantaneous global communication. What practical good does it do?

[errantpenny.livejournal.com]

In the last few days, you have expressed so much of what I've been thinking.

Thank you.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- that is a very nice compliment.

[lacachet.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Robin is getting more of an education than what the public schools have to offer, have you ever mentioned what school he goes to?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

He goes to a charter school, actually -- the International School of Monterey, the only International School in the world that's technically part of a public school system. Although, since it's a charter school, we (parents!) have a great deal more say in how it is run that parents do in other public schools. And, of course, we're constantly doing fund-raising since the per pupil costs are approximtely $2000 over what we're reimbursed for by the State of California.

[wailaki.livejournal.com]

I am doing the same thing you are (minus the FOX channel). I even get up in the middle of the night, awakened by corpses rotting in the sun, and turn on MSNBC for an update. I, too feel the need to not only bear witness but try and follow each horror and detail as it unfolds. It is like watching a mushroom cloud coming toward me in slo-mo. Knowing that the ripple effect is going to be enormous and last the rest of my life in ways I don't yet know.

Gas is $3.50 here. And there is oil leaking into the Mississippi River. Farmers can't use the river as the main artery that it was, and barges can't load up anyway. I KNEW there was a really good reason (aside from paranoi) that I moved to the woods.

Bottom line: The Revolution IS being televised."

At least Bush can't censor it, and his smarmy, paternalistic kisses-on-the-head are worse than his apathy.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

You're right, we are witnessing the End of the American Empire. My advice: stockpile coffee if you're a caffeine addict (like me): it all came in through Gulfport.

In gas shortage times, it's cheaper to fuel up at the brand name stations. They don't buy their supplies on the spot market, so are less susceptible to temporary spikes and jags.