Blame

[crashdive123]

One of the things that I really enjoy about this forum is the mindset of the members (for the most part). The majority of us believe in taking personal responsibility for preparing for what could happen. We often hear about blaming others or the government for bad things that befall us. I, along with others get miffed when I see this because for the most part those doing the complaining are doing little to help themselves. That being said, when you look at what has just happened in Myanmar with over 10,000 dead and then find out that the government refused to send out warnings to its people...... Sometimes there is blame and finger pointing that is valid. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080505/wl_nm/myanmar_dc

[nell67]

Well said crashdive.

[klkak]

Very ture. Thanks for pointing that out Crash.

[klkak]

I was just thinking about how nice it is to have a trapping partner. Every time something goes wrong on the trap line I blame him. Of course he does the same to me. It's a vicious circle.

[cajun swamp hunter]

When hurricane Rita hit right after Katrina the area that floode was way larger with people spread out in rural areas making locating them very difficult. What happened here unlike New Orleans was nobody was shooting at us when we went to get them in boats. A whole group of us went to New Orleans and made one repeat one run and left after getting shot at repeatedly. In this area evry one banded together and we had so many people in boats it was hard to organize just to keep from searching the same area twice. By the time any government showed up here we had done the job for them. I will give credit to two government agencies who were on the ball in both places though. One was the Coast guard and the other was the Louisiana Wildlife and fisheries. If it wouldnt have been a war zone in New Orleans they would have had a huge amount of help there also. The mindset of the folks along the gulf coast is to help each other and themselves after rebuilding themselves time after time. The city folks in New Orleans though are a whole different type of people. Not all but most seem like that its the govrnments fault even to the fact they flooded. Blaming the gov for the levees. We all have been knowing it was going to happen just like it will again one day. Thats an example of hundreds of thousands of people living in a city 20 ft. below sea level where hurricanes are in the gulf every year. When it happens again lets see how many say (Guess I should have moved)

[trax]

By the time any government showed up here we had done the job for them.

Why does that statement not surprise me? Nice work cajun, nice to hear some positive from all the tragedy that we heard, up here.

In '97 the Red River flooded its banks the worst that it had in decades and people who lived all along south Winnipeg especially went whining for government assistance when their insurance companies apparently said they weren't covered. Homes worth a quarter million to a half million bucks and some more. I kept asking, 'What did people who built there homes on riverbanks think would happen?" No one answered. The Prime Minister showed up to get his picture taken holding a sandbag and promised them all money. Communities that were flooded out and all of their traditional lands destroyed by hydro dam construction in the '70's fought for years to get decent compensation, they've all basically been ripped off and those floodwaters are never going away.

[Tahyo]

When hurricane Rita hit right after Katrina the area that floode was way larger with people spread out in rural areas making locating them very difficult. What happened here unlike New Orleans was nobody was shooting at us when we went to get them in boats. A whole group of us went to New Orleans and made one repeat one run and left after getting shot at repeatedly. In this area evry one banded together and we had so many people in boats it was hard to organize just to keep from searching the same area twice. By the time any government showed up here we had done the job for them. I will give credit to two government agencies who were on the ball in both places though. One was the Coast guard and the other was the Louisiana Wildlife and fisheries. If it wouldnt have been a war zone in New Orleans they would have had a huge amount of help there also. The mindset of the folks along the gulf coast is to help each other and themselves after rebuilding themselves time after time. The city folks in New Orleans though are a whole different type of people. Not all but most seem like that its the govrnments fault even to the fact they flooded. Blaming the gov for the levees. We all have been knowing it was going to happen just like it will again one day. Thats an example of hundreds of thousands of people living in a city 20 ft. below sea level where hurricanes are in the gulf every year. When it happens again lets see how many say (Guess I should have moved)

When Rita was still out in the Gulf, I kept hoping it would turn north way before it did and finish off N.O. I wouldn't give you 10 cents for that whole freaking town.
Down in Cameron/Creole/Sweetlake area where I'm originally from, Cameron got destroyed. Quite few of my family members down there came back after the storm to find their houses gone or out in the marsh. Not once did I ever hear of any of those Coonasses complain. They all got busy and started putting things back together. They still are.

Here is something one of my relatives sent me later after the storm. I've kept it all this time.
~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted 16 October 2005 05:44 PM
They were poor. They lived in homes that, to some Americans, would
appear no more than shacks. They've suffered discrimination at the hands
of their fellow Americans. And when the hurricane came, it seemed to
veer out of its way, just to hit them.


So why didn't hundreds of Cajuns from western Louisiana appear on my TV
screen this week, complaining that George W. Bush doesn't like them,
demanding $200 billion of my tax dollars or blaming the bad weather on
Halliburton?


Hurricane Rita may have hit western Louisiana harder than Katrina hit
New Orleans, but Rita ran across folks made of sterner stuff then you'll
find in the Ninth Ward. Here's how one Washington Post story described
the scene just hours after Rita made landfall near Intracoastal City, a
"city" that in many senses barely exists:


"The only people who can get here are the sturdiest of sorts, a small
armada of Cajuns with pretty French names and sunburned skin and
don't-mess-with-me bravado. The bayous were full of them Saturday,
gliding high and quick in airboats, and so was the Vermilion River,
where they were spinning steering wheels on fast Boston Whalers and
kicking up wakes in flat-bottomed, aluminum boats. They did not wait for
the president or FEMA or anyone else to tell them that there were people
out there, out there and desperate, on rooftops...


I got out of the sheriff's office in about 20 seconds,' said Steve
Artee, as his son, Chris, made a hard, boat-tilting turn on the swollen
Vermilion. "They just took my cell phone number, and I was gone. That's
because Kathleen Blanco wasn't involved.'"


Now, anyone who hates Blanco and bureaucrats can't be all bad. But I
don't agree with Mr. Artee that the people of Vermilion Parish behaved
more responsibly or showed more strength of character because Gov.
Blanco didn't have their parish on her speed dial. I believe the people
of western Louisiana behaved better because they are, in fact, better
people.


The failure revealed by Hurricane Katrina was not a failure of
government, at least, not any more than government always fails. The
failure in New Orleans was a failure of character. Corrupt people
electing corrupt politicians who gave millions in tax dollars to corrupt
cronies to either mis-construct vital levees or to spend the money on
entirely useless pork projects. Then, when disaster struck, these same
people living a Faustian deal of votes for tax-funded handouts, were
utterly lost when those corrupt government officials headed for high
ground without them.


As John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote: "In just the past
generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general,
three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal
judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials
convicted. Last year, three top officials at Louisiana's Office of
Emergency Preparedness were indicted. Just this summer, associates of
former [New Orleans] mayor Marc Morial were indicted for alleged
kickbacks involving public contracts. Last month the FBI raided the home
and car of Rep. William Jefferson as part of a probe into allegations he
had misused his office."


Not to mention the widespread looting by the citizens of New Orleans
themselves, which included televised looting by police officers, too.
The chief administrative officer for Kenner, LA, was just busted for
pilfering food, drinks, chainsaws and roof tarps from New Orleans and
stashing them in his suburban home.


Hey, stay classy, New Orleans!


Then came Hurricane Rita, Katrina's ugly sister, to wreak similar havoc
just a few hundred miles to the west. The communities affected were, on
the surface, similar as well: Abbeville or Cameron, LA were "low income"
communities. The education levels were similar to the Ninth Ward, too.
And you won't find many branches of the Aryan Nations meeting among the
dark-skinned natives of Cajun country, whose heritage is a genetic gumbo
of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and American Indians.


But while the people of New Orleans were panicking and complaining (not
to mention stealing, shooting and stabbing) days after the storm, the
Cajuns of western Louisiana were out in their boats, looking for lost
neighbors and rescuing strangers off rooftops.


It wasn't just because Gov. Blanco wasn't involved. It was because
almost NO government is involved in these folks' daily lives. The people
of rural Louisiana grow up with the assumption that their survival in
this world of woe is their responsibility. Unlike far too many people in
New Orleans, "low income" isn't an excuse to the working families in
rural Louisiana. It's just a condition to be dealt with. They live their
lives as though they own them, unlike those government-dependent
"victims" who live as though life is something the state provides for
them and is responsible to maintain.


Randy Gary, a fisherman from Cameron, LA, was asked about his future
after his boats were destroyed and flooding poisoned the oyster beds he
fished.


He didn't blame FEMA or accuse President Bush of stealing his lunch
money. He wasn't spotted kicking in the door of the local Wal-Mart to
snag a plasma-screen TV "for survival purposes." He has yet to join the
Cajun Action Committee to investigate why so many of Rita's victims
spoke French.


Instead, as the AP reports, he smiled.


"What else we gonna do?" he said, pledging to rebuild his shattered
home and work. "It's my life. It's what I do."


Hurricane Rita, you've met your match.

[klkak]

Thanks Tahyo, that was encouraging reading.

[RobertRogers]

exactly! Do what you can to improve yourself rather than sit down and cry

[Sam Reeves]

As more and more of 'generation X' mimics the ghetto culture we can only expect more and more of these people to play the blame game and be unprepared for everything.

[Rick]

I don't know, Sam. It's hard to hang any label on a group of people. There are a lot of Gen X folks on here that seem to have their heads on straight. I'll agree that we've fostered a generation or two that want it now. But that's as much about mass marketing, IMHO, as anything. I can show you a LOT of baby boomers that fall into that description.

[Sam Reeves]

I don't know, Sam. It's hard to hang any label on a group of people. There are a lot of Gen X folks on here that seem to have their heads on straight. I'll agree that we've fostered a generation or two that want it now. But that's as much about mass marketing, IMHO, as anything. I can show you a LOT of baby boomers that fall into that description.

I reckon we are on a different page. You are talking about consumerism and I am referring to cultural regression.

[Ken]

Hate to say this, but .....

I worked with a lot of folks from FEMA from about '79 to '88. About 80% of those folks (back then, anyway) couldn't plan a response to a trash can fire if they had 48 hours advance notice that it was going to happen.

Example: Their nuclear evacuation plan was to move about 750,000 people from S.E. Massachusetts over TO CAPE COD! Problems? Well, to name only a very few, people would have to drive over one of only two bridges (both likely to be destroyed beforehand) onto a man-made island with numerous military targets. When (IF) people got there, they would have found little food, shelter, medical facilities, or anything else which would last more than a few days. Talk about being led into a death trap..........

THAT'S WHEN I REALIZED THAT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, PRE-PLANNING, AND A GOOD ROAD MAP NORTH WAS MY FAMILY'S BEST BET.

[Sam Reeves]

Hate to say this, but .....

I worked with a lot of folks from FEMA from about '79 to '88. About 80% of those folks (back then, anyway) couldn't plan a response to a trash can fire if they had 48 hours advance notice that it was going to happen.

Example: Their nuclear evacuation plan was to move about 750,000 people from S.E. Massachusetts over TO CAPE COD! Problems? Well, to name only a very few, people would have to drive over one of only two bridges (both likely to be destroyed beforehand) onto a man-made island with numerous military targets. When (IF) people got there, they would have found little food, shelter, medical facilities, or anything else which would last more than a few days. Talk about being led into a death trap..........

THAT'S WHEN I REALIZED THAT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, PRE-PLANNING, AND A GOOD ROAD MAP NORTH WAS MY FAMILY'S BEST BET.

Why would they move 3/4 million people to Cape Cod?

I couldn't find a source I but I remember reading somewhere that Atlanta was projected to be number six on Whoever's strategic hit list. That would pretty much guarantee multiply hits. We have a clear path farther North but I've heard a nuclear blast would disable the electronics in most cars.

[Rick]

Sam, I just meant the cultural regression was brought about in large part by consumerism.

[Sam Reeves]

Sam, I just meant the cultural regression was brought about in large part by consumerism.

Yeah, consumerism ushered in a lot of things that are wrecking the country.

For a while I was an electrician. I finding that weak people are just like electricity. They always follow the path of least resistance.

[LeaveThisLifeGuy]

good read tahyo

[DOGMAN]

As more and more of 'generation X' mimics the ghetto culture we can only expect more and more of these people to play the blame game and be unprepared for everything.

Sam, as a Generation X'er myself I do see a little of what your saying. Not so much about "ghetto culture" but in the sense of being unprepared and wanting to pass the blame. So many people of my generation will not take responsiblity for their own actions, and have no comprehension of were things come from, or how they work- and they just expect things to be done for them. I have very few friends that are my age.

But, I will say I know several young folks currenty in their late teens and early 20's that seem to be "taking responsiblity" for themselves and their world much more than the Generation X'er that are my peers.

[awfoxden]

Sam, as a Generation X'er myself I do see a little of what your saying. Not so much about "ghetto culture" but in the sense of being unprepared and wanting to pass the blame. So many people of my generation will not take responsiblity for their own actions, and have no comprehension of were things come from, or how they work- and they just expect things to be done for them. I have very few friends that are my age.

But, I will say I know several young folks currenty in their late teens and early 20's that seem to be "taking responsiblity" for themselves and their world much more than the Generation X'er that are my peers.

i would say its mor an example of lableing regions than lableing a generation. growing up in more rural north west to central US ive found many people my age to have great work ethics and take responsibility for their lives. if anything me and my friends get frustrated with what you are saying and what we call the medicaid dependents. 3rd and 4th generation single mothers with 6 kids from 6 different dads, or the large population of illeagles that are poping out kids illeagley in the US and my tax dollars are going to support them? the trend seems to be the big cities low income sections. the farming communities seem to still be up before dawn and to bed after sunset with a full days work under their belt, making money to pay for all the others.

[Ken]

Why would they move 3/4 million people to Cape Cod?

I couldn't find a source I but I remember reading somewhere that Atlanta was projected to be number six on Whoever's strategic hit list. That would pretty much guarantee multiply hits. We have a clear path farther North but I've heard a nuclear blast would disable the electronics in most cars.

Sam, for the life of me I don't know. And nobody at the conferences could give an answer that made any sense at all. A little town named Harwich was supposed to accept about 50,000 evacuees. Betcha' they didn't even know.

Yep, EMP would likely destroy most electronics. Back then, that would have been somewhat less of a problem than now, except for the clogged roads and bridges. The premise was to move people to the Cape (target area) as hostilities rose and BEFORE we got nuked. The whole idea was ridiculous. Then again, think about the great planning they employed for Katrina