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Let’s NOT play the blame game…
I’m doing my daily blog reading…yes, I know I’ve been quiet on the posting front, but I am here, quietly reading. I just ran onto an interesting post at Jeff’s site, which was a “guest post” by his brother. Said post has to do with emergency preparedness…that’s OUR emergency preparedness, NOT the government’s, or FEMA’s. The most interesting thing I read there was this:
FEMA and the American Red Cross for instance have on their websites information pertaining to disaster preparedness. One of the resounding themes is that you need to be prepared to survive for 3 to 7 days on your own with little or no assistance from others.
3 to 7 days. On your own. With NO assistance. This is the NORM! I live in Florida, I’ve dealt with hurricanes. During Hurricane Charley, we lost power for three days (at least!)…and we didn’t even have damage. What did we do? We SURVIVED. We used our gas grill…we had plenty of water stockpiled…we KNEW there was a storm coming. We prepared…and we didn’t expect someone to come save us…at least not immediately.
So why is everyone blaming everyone else?
Listen, all I can really say is having gone through a Hurricane – they suck. We were without electricity for 6 days and I had to leave. I couldn’t take it. I can’t even fathom what it’s like over there and I’m actually getting pretty sick over it/
“So why is everyone blaming everyone else?”
You might want to ask Chuck Schumer that question.
I would take a guess, Tammy, that quite a number of citizens have grown accustomed to the idea that they should be taken care of, versus taking care of themselves. There are “programs” for everything, it seems. I don’t see too many “how to survive” programs or “how to take care of yourself” programs. I see it in the working world – people coming to work not being responsible for their own actions and when they don’t do what is required of them, they are amazed that their boss is asking them why they aren’t doing their job. I know it isn’t an apples to apples comparison, but it extends throughout our society. Shoot, we teach it in school. We can’t let little Johnny fail the math class, so let’s curve the grades. We can’t grade little Johnny’s school paper in red ink, it might hurt his feelings, so we’ll grade in purple.
So when it comes to disaster, the first thing that happens is blame is placed on the rescuer, especially when they don’t come save people as quickly as they would like. I do understand that a certain percentage of people may not have been able to leave for whatever circumstance. But if those who had the means left when they were supposed to, the effort would have been less ominous. I also think that people tend to point the finger elsewhere because it is extremely difficult for them to turn that finger to themselves – especially when they know they are in the wrong. Just my two cents (or perhaps a nickel?).
Hmm, you’ve written a thought-provoking – and important – post. I’m inclined to agree with the previous commenter: society seems to have evolved (or de-evolved, as the case may be) to a point where people expect others to do for them. I’m not sure why this has come to be, but it saddens me all the same.
Dropped in from Michele’s tonight. So glad I did: this is a great blog, as I’ve already discovered previously.