I don't want to get off on a rant here, but..

[docwebster]

I've seen a lot of people pissing and moaning because one of the mayors down in the path of Hurricane Katrina called it "our Tsunami".

I'll tell you what, Cha-Cha, I'm sure they'll put up a Post-It Note to give a rat's ass what you think about what that mayor named their own personal hell on Earth they're going through. They'll mark it as a priority somewhere south on the list of "Things To Do" after burying their dead, pumping out the water, burying their dead, tending to their injured, rebuilding their homes and businesses, and trying to find some tenuous foothold so they can start their lives over.

I have a question: who died and made you King Asshole? These people and that mayor can call that event "Pinky Tuscadero" if they want to, it's none of your fucking business.

EDIT: Okay, let me offer a question: How long do you think that mayor had been awake at that point? How many living, waking, breathing nightmares had he heard about or seen at that point? How many nightmares do you think he has to look forward to over the weeks and months - who am I kidding, years - ahead? If he fumbled for something to name it and that's what he came up with, then forgive the man his mortal sin. I'm inclined to give those poor bastards a little slack over what is at this point mere words when they've got all that horrific work ahead of them. Frankly, I'm more worried about fixing up an event of some kind to help these people than I'm interested in bantering semantics.

Comments

[rosefox]

There are two issues for me: the mayor who said it, and the far-away commentators who say it (and by it mean "America's" when they say "our"). For the first, honestly, I expect a little more perspective and calm-headedness from elected officials, even in the face of tragedy, because I have seen elected officials with more perspective and calmer heads in the face of a tragedy that wasn't expected (as this was), was caused by other people (as this was not), and claimed twenty or thirty times as many lives. For the second, it seems smug and condescending, as though one American life were worth a thousand Indonesian lives, and I find that no less than vile. I found it pretty vile when people put the tsunami death tolls in terms of "that's seventy-eight 9/11s", too, just as I would have if someone had called 9/11 "fifteen Lockerbies". Comparing disasters is ugly no matter how you look at it.

Will I cut the mayor some slack? Sure. Will I continue to think that it's not unreasonable to expect better? Yes.

[drake57.livejournal.com]

Yes this kind of attitude and arrogance will make the people who've lost loved ones and everything they own feel so much better.

[rosefox]

I have nothing but sympathy for those people. I'm far away and it's hard for anyone up here to try to understand the extent of the damage; I know it's horrible, and I also know that I don't have any way of understanding the reality of it.

That doesn't stop me from wanting people to be the best people they can be, even in terrible situations. I honestly don't understand why the mayors of towns and cities there are even giving television interviews, unless they're stuck someplace and unable to do anything but sit and wait. (I don't know the context of the original quote.) I would expect them to get on the horn to broadcast necessary information for their residents and then go do what they could to save lives. Whether "our tsunami" is an accurate description of the way that people there feel--and it may well be--I persist in believing that an elected official who has taken responsibility for the health and welfare of a place and the people in it has no business giving sound bites when he or she could be coordinating rescue efforts or calling every government number in the phone book, up to the White House, to try to get more rescue personnel mobilized.

[weekendwench.livejournal.com]

Yeah...the mayor was trying to be arrogant! We selfish, pompous Americans don't think, but rather, we KNOW our lives and homes are worth more than hundreds of thousands of Indians and Indonesians...THAT was EXACTLY what the mayor was trying to convey. He wasn't trying to paint a picture of the devestation in his home area in terms that people could understand....no he simply wanted to show that we as Americans believe we are better than the rest of the world. I am so glad that you were clever enough to pick up on that point.

[rosefox]

Please at least try to read what I said about the difference between hearing this from someone who's there and hearing it from people who are thousands of miles away and just puffing themselves up.