"An Essay on Religion" or "Katrina is not so much of a bimbo as our 'gubmint'"
My favoritest website, somethingawful.com, is down due to its servers being located in New Orleans. They have a temporary site up at their usual web address and the commentary on it is probably the best general blog-like sentiment I have read so far about this governmental disaster called Hurricane Katrina. I don't know how long this text will be at Something Awful's URL so I'll paste it here:
Bless This Mess
Most of you probably haven't noticed, but the SA servers finally had their plug pulled Thursday afternoon despite the heroic efforts of the people at DirectNIC. While I appreciate what they did for us, their devotion to some websites seems a little misguided in the midst of what is happening. That "what" is hell on earth in the greater New Orleans area.
Rich, myself, Livestock, and probably some of the other writers have been watching the hurricane aftermath with nothing short of dumb shock. There is a disaster going on right now and it is manmade. The disaster is three strangers in Mississippi, together because they're all that's left and alone in a town without buildings, drinking floodwater polluted by corpses, shit and gasoline. The disaster is a woman wading through waist deep streets holding her daughter and wondering why the trucks won't stop to get her out of the city. The disaster is ICU patients dying one after another because diesel didn't flow and order couldn't be kept. It's an uninterrupted chain of personal disasters. It's inept triage on a national scale.
It's unbelievable that this is America. It's hard to comprehend that these repeating images of herds of people without food or water or medical treatment after nearly a week are happening on our soil. They're our fellow citizens and while the politicians, directors, planners and generals congratulate each other at press conferences they are suffering and dying.
I have seen some efforts in the media to pressure officials to accept responsibility. None have, because in public office the buck stops nowhere. The only person I have really seen come close to capturing the raw fury of the people trapped in New Orleans or forgotten in Mississippi and Alabama is CNN's Anderson Cooper. He confronted Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu on live TV, chiding her with a voice cracking with emotion that he couldn't believe the politicians were patting each other on the back over a job well done when he just saw rats eating a woman's body in the street of Biloxi.
On the Internet I've seen people blatantly placing blame on Bush, FEMA, Congress, the National Guard, and even Homeland Security. Who is responsible? Who should be blamed? All of them. This is a colossal failure of our government to care for and protect its citizenry on every conceivable level.
The heroes are the men and women on the scene doing their utmost to help those in need. Coast Guard rescue workers plucking people to safety and Red Cross workers feeding people from emergency kitchens are heroes. The man who commandeered a bus and got people out of New Orleans when the government was woefully impotent is a hero. The woman who smashed the glass on a convenience store to loot bottled water for fifteen kids who should have been absolutely inundated with supplies by then is a hero. The doctors and nurses hand-bagging ventilator patients 24 hours a day in dark hospitals are heroes.
In the ineloquent but true words of the Mayor of New Orleans: "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country." CNN was better prepared to deal with this disaster than FEMA was.
I am ashamed of my country's government in a universal way right now. Republicans, democrats, opportunists, it doesn't matter; they're all guilty in this situation. In a magical world where justice is actually served most of these people would not have jobs in a month or two. Instead the people without jobs will be the millions who have lost everything and found their government with its back turned. Remember that people are still dying because of this incompetence. Remember that when each and every one of these fools appears on TV for a photo op or complains about "placing blame later," because placing blame now is the only hope America has to change the situation.
Chuck Norris wouldn't allow this bullshit to happen.
- Zack "Geist Editor" Parsons
Appropriately as I was reading the article I was also listening to George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" from his beautiful album of the same title. George Harrison was intimate with the religions of the Far East, as all humans should be but are not. The song is about the inevitable transience of our life and universe, and borrows from the last words of Buddha to his followers which are (roughly translated): "All things must pass away. Go forth and be lights unto yourselves." Only we control our own destiny. And we have lots of power. A lot of humans exercising their free will to give a damn is all that is going to save the unfortunate victims of Katrina. Also, those among the victims should not be victimizing others. We have free will and we should be using it to do and be good.
It is our constitutional right as American citizens to overthrow the government when it is failing. So how do we go about doing that? At the very least we citizens should be doing what we can to impeach Bush for his gross reign as "president" of this country which was in great shape when Clinton left it a few short years ago. It's amazing that Clinton was able to do so much good for us in the same time it's taking for Bush to make it as bad as it's been since Vietnam, WWII, the Great Depression, the Civil War and slavery. LIKE THE MAJORITY of the country I voted democrat in the past two presidential elections ... Bush's ever-lowering approval ratings are betraying the fact that even the stupidest Americans are realizing he's a puppet and does not give a damn about anything except his precious five-week vacations. Most Americans don't get ANY vacation time. I think we could learn a lot from Europe right now ... they work fewer hours per week than we do, get paid better, get more vacation time, and have FAR superior social plans than we do. I'm not a "socialist" but I'm not a capitalist either ... we can only survive on a balance of both and right now we are suffering from our own wretched system.
We could also learn a lot from the Buddha. Being happy is the goal of all humankind, and when you look at every religion, one single common thread is that every religion has a different path to happiness that is the culmination of all its beliefs and facets. One cool thing about Buddhism and a lot of Far Eastern religions is that they are inclusive - you can be Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and Confucian with no problem. People in India have pictures of Jesus next to statues of Vishnu: "Jesus is another incarnation of 'God'!"
A Buddhist story I heard that I like goes like this:
A monk was walking along and saw a man sitting in meditation. He was on bare ground in the burning sun, sweating and looking generally miserable. The man asked him, "Can you ask the Buddha how many lives I must live until I reach nirvana?" The monk said yes and walked along. He came upon a second man who was meditating next to a cool stream, in the shade under a tree. He said to the monk, "Can you ask the Buddha how many lives I must live until I reach nirvana?" The monk said yes and returned the monastery. The next day the monk returned to the man who was baking in the sun, who was now being practically eaten alive by the ants. The man looked up at the monk and asked, "did you talk to the Buddha?" The monk said "Yes. He says you must live seven more lifetimes until you reach nirvana." The man said "That many?" in despair, near death. The monk returned to the man under the tree, who was meditating by dancing merrily. The man asked the monk, "did you talk to the Buddha?" The monk said "yes - he said you must live a thousand more lifetimes until you reach nirvana."
The man never stopped dancing and said "A thousand? Is that all?"
Bless This Mess
Most of you probably haven't noticed, but the SA servers finally had their plug pulled Thursday afternoon despite the heroic efforts of the people at DirectNIC. While I appreciate what they did for us, their devotion to some websites seems a little misguided in the midst of what is happening. That "what" is hell on earth in the greater New Orleans area.
Rich, myself, Livestock, and probably some of the other writers have been watching the hurricane aftermath with nothing short of dumb shock. There is a disaster going on right now and it is manmade. The disaster is three strangers in Mississippi, together because they're all that's left and alone in a town without buildings, drinking floodwater polluted by corpses, shit and gasoline. The disaster is a woman wading through waist deep streets holding her daughter and wondering why the trucks won't stop to get her out of the city. The disaster is ICU patients dying one after another because diesel didn't flow and order couldn't be kept. It's an uninterrupted chain of personal disasters. It's inept triage on a national scale.
It's unbelievable that this is America. It's hard to comprehend that these repeating images of herds of people without food or water or medical treatment after nearly a week are happening on our soil. They're our fellow citizens and while the politicians, directors, planners and generals congratulate each other at press conferences they are suffering and dying.
I have seen some efforts in the media to pressure officials to accept responsibility. None have, because in public office the buck stops nowhere. The only person I have really seen come close to capturing the raw fury of the people trapped in New Orleans or forgotten in Mississippi and Alabama is CNN's Anderson Cooper. He confronted Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu on live TV, chiding her with a voice cracking with emotion that he couldn't believe the politicians were patting each other on the back over a job well done when he just saw rats eating a woman's body in the street of Biloxi.
On the Internet I've seen people blatantly placing blame on Bush, FEMA, Congress, the National Guard, and even Homeland Security. Who is responsible? Who should be blamed? All of them. This is a colossal failure of our government to care for and protect its citizenry on every conceivable level.
The heroes are the men and women on the scene doing their utmost to help those in need. Coast Guard rescue workers plucking people to safety and Red Cross workers feeding people from emergency kitchens are heroes. The man who commandeered a bus and got people out of New Orleans when the government was woefully impotent is a hero. The woman who smashed the glass on a convenience store to loot bottled water for fifteen kids who should have been absolutely inundated with supplies by then is a hero. The doctors and nurses hand-bagging ventilator patients 24 hours a day in dark hospitals are heroes.
In the ineloquent but true words of the Mayor of New Orleans: "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country." CNN was better prepared to deal with this disaster than FEMA was.
I am ashamed of my country's government in a universal way right now. Republicans, democrats, opportunists, it doesn't matter; they're all guilty in this situation. In a magical world where justice is actually served most of these people would not have jobs in a month or two. Instead the people without jobs will be the millions who have lost everything and found their government with its back turned. Remember that people are still dying because of this incompetence. Remember that when each and every one of these fools appears on TV for a photo op or complains about "placing blame later," because placing blame now is the only hope America has to change the situation.
Chuck Norris wouldn't allow this bullshit to happen.
- Zack "Geist Editor" Parsons
Appropriately as I was reading the article I was also listening to George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" from his beautiful album of the same title. George Harrison was intimate with the religions of the Far East, as all humans should be but are not. The song is about the inevitable transience of our life and universe, and borrows from the last words of Buddha to his followers which are (roughly translated): "All things must pass away. Go forth and be lights unto yourselves." Only we control our own destiny. And we have lots of power. A lot of humans exercising their free will to give a damn is all that is going to save the unfortunate victims of Katrina. Also, those among the victims should not be victimizing others. We have free will and we should be using it to do and be good.
It is our constitutional right as American citizens to overthrow the government when it is failing. So how do we go about doing that? At the very least we citizens should be doing what we can to impeach Bush for his gross reign as "president" of this country which was in great shape when Clinton left it a few short years ago. It's amazing that Clinton was able to do so much good for us in the same time it's taking for Bush to make it as bad as it's been since Vietnam, WWII, the Great Depression, the Civil War and slavery. LIKE THE MAJORITY of the country I voted democrat in the past two presidential elections ... Bush's ever-lowering approval ratings are betraying the fact that even the stupidest Americans are realizing he's a puppet and does not give a damn about anything except his precious five-week vacations. Most Americans don't get ANY vacation time. I think we could learn a lot from Europe right now ... they work fewer hours per week than we do, get paid better, get more vacation time, and have FAR superior social plans than we do. I'm not a "socialist" but I'm not a capitalist either ... we can only survive on a balance of both and right now we are suffering from our own wretched system.
We could also learn a lot from the Buddha. Being happy is the goal of all humankind, and when you look at every religion, one single common thread is that every religion has a different path to happiness that is the culmination of all its beliefs and facets. One cool thing about Buddhism and a lot of Far Eastern religions is that they are inclusive - you can be Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and Confucian with no problem. People in India have pictures of Jesus next to statues of Vishnu: "Jesus is another incarnation of 'God'!"
A Buddhist story I heard that I like goes like this:
A monk was walking along and saw a man sitting in meditation. He was on bare ground in the burning sun, sweating and looking generally miserable. The man asked him, "Can you ask the Buddha how many lives I must live until I reach nirvana?" The monk said yes and walked along. He came upon a second man who was meditating next to a cool stream, in the shade under a tree. He said to the monk, "Can you ask the Buddha how many lives I must live until I reach nirvana?" The monk said yes and returned the monastery. The next day the monk returned to the man who was baking in the sun, who was now being practically eaten alive by the ants. The man looked up at the monk and asked, "did you talk to the Buddha?" The monk said "Yes. He says you must live seven more lifetimes until you reach nirvana." The man said "That many?" in despair, near death. The monk returned to the man under the tree, who was meditating by dancing merrily. The man asked the monk, "did you talk to the Buddha?" The monk said "yes - he said you must live a thousand more lifetimes until you reach nirvana."
The man never stopped dancing and said "A thousand? Is that all?"