I spent some time on YouTube at noon watching storm videos while I munched my lunch.
Where I made my big mistake was that I also read many of the comments associated with this or that report. I only accessed videos produced by the Networks, or official State of NC releases, or those of local City Governments filmed mostly by their own media teams.
There are two stories going on here at once.
Dangerous rescues in the dark vs. viewers who did not believe that county governments running the operations are competent.
Trucks trying to get food and drinking water through dangerous flooded roads and highways vs. angry people complaining that help wasn't coming fast enough.
People who despise FEMA and don't realize that it is a slow moving, disaster driven, government organization meant to work with local survival units. Any life-changing relief that they can give takes a year or more.
I read ignorant comments, angry comments, even comments of disbelief in any picture or story coming out of the storm-crushed communities.
I read several comments blaming the President for the devastation while admitting that our infrastructure hasn't been modernized in DECADES.
I read the ranting about and the damning of building code officials from people who had sought and been given permission to build.
I saw a post blaming a small town for not supplying and putting sandbags in place for the homeowners.
I do believe in helping one another. Picking up the weak by their bootstraps. Feeding the hungry. Sheltering our neighbors. Saving the pets. Braving harm's way to save lives. Doing unto others as I would have them do unto me.
I also believe that there is a place for benevolent government help in times of catastrophe, as well as religious and private donations and volunteerism. Church members seem to care first for each other. But that's another story.
And YET:
We have become HALF a nation of complainers, nay-sayers, and uninformed alarmists who want to be totally taken care of by governments – National, State, and Local.
Thank God that we are still HALF a nation of doers, responders, and people who believe that we are our own responsibility not that of whomever sent the free lunches and provided the shelters during the storm.
As Americans, I like to think that we ALL love our neighbors, step up for others, and proudly do whatever it takes to stay alive and well when the government is in bureaucracy mode, the food has been delayed because the highway caved in, and the City Manager has been up all night even though his own house has been flooded and his family has taken shelter with only a box of diapers, the kids, and a terrified dog.
So instead of writing these dumb posts, grumbling and complaining, blaming, and whining, why don't we all get together and realize that, although nobody owes us a living, we do have each other in a crisis.
Let's don't post that kind of garbage that I read this morning without a helpful plan attached. If it won't change anything, let's keep it to ourselves. Anyway, that's my solution. I welcome yours.
