Probably get yanked too, but.............This was Email, sent to me by Face (Frank) and I thought I would share it.
Feel free to keep your comments to yourselves, it is just someones story and oppinion.
Back in the 70's, my wife, baby daughter, and I lived in Goodna,
Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane. We were young and inexperienced and like
most couples our age lived pretty much hand to mouth. It was a struggle to
make ends meet. Any savings we had went as a down payment on the home we
were buying.
Once a week my wife went shopping and bought the food and supplies we
would need the following week.
Like the Southeastern United States, the area we lived in was subtropical
and prone to cyclones (same as hurricanes). One day a cyclone approached
our area. It wasn't a big one as cyclones go, so we weren't too concerned.
We figured 6-12 hours of high winds and all would be back to normal.
Except things didn't go exactly according to plans. The cyclone moved in
over top of us and hit up against another pressure front and stopped dead.
And there
it sat for two days. Not too much wind but oh did it rain. An inch an hour
for 48 hours. That's right - we got nearly four feet of rain.
Now Brisbane is built on the Brisbane River, not an impressive river as
rivers go - only a few feet deep and a hundred feet wide in the western
suburbs where we lived. At least during normal times. Four feet of water
over several hundred square miles is one hell of a lot of water. Trust me
on that one - I've seen it. And all of that water all had to get to the
sea via the Brisbane River.. During the night, our little Brisbane River
rose and rose. The police were magnificent. They woke people up and
evacuated thousands of homes during that long night. Only two people
drowned in our area - residents of a mobile home park whose trailer was
swept away. The police commandeered trucks and backed them up to the local
grocery store and loaded all the food and necessities, drove them to high
ground and parked them.
By mid morning the river was 60 feet deep and three miles wide. We lived
on a hill so we weren't submerged. When you walked over the crest of the
hill and looked down into the valley where there was once a highway,
railroad line, shopping centers, and thousands of homes you were stunned
into silence. All you could see was water everywhere. No electric poles,
no roof tops, nothing. Everything was under water.
We took stock of our situation - it wasn't good. The flood came on our
weekly shopping day so the house contained very little food. We had some
candles and a flashlight. Nothing else. There was no electricity or water.
Fortunately it was warm weather. We were in stunned disbelief. So were our
neighbors. However, we decided we
had better quickly organize ourselves. We knew we were going to be
isolated and without water or power for some time. We started collecting
all the rainwater we could. Without it we were screwed. We dismantled and
reassembled a non-mortared barbecue under our carport. We started
collecting all the firewood we could find. We assessed the food situation.
Some people had full freezers. We separated what we could eat over the
next several days and dug
pits and buried the rest. Everyone shared what they had without a single
word of what came from whom.
Needless to say we survived - and in good shape. The R.A.A.F flew some
food supplies in (especially fresh bread that the local prison was baking
and fresh, unpasteurized milk from local farmers.) by helicopter. In fact
I look back on those days with some fondness. Our carport became the hub
of the neighborhood. At night we would just sit around the fire and talk.
The thousands of people who were displaced didn't go to refugee camps.
They went into the homes of those not flooded - sometimes friends or
relatives, often strangers. Nobody forced you to take in another family,
everyone just did it.
Hundreds of millions of dollars was raised throughout Australia. The
relief agencies didn't screw around with the money either. As soon as the
water receded in a weeks time, they set up centers in every hamlet. Anyone
who was submerged was given an initial $4,000 in CASH to tide them
through. More came later. Was there some abuse? A few instances but not
many and the there was follow-up to deal with that.. Was there any
looting? Virtually none.
What does this have to do with New Orleans? Plenty.
Why didn't the people in the Superdome make any effort to organize
themselves? Why didn't groups of men patrol the restrooms to prevent
rapes?
We have gone a long way in the past 40 years to creating a dysfunctional
society where self reliance, pride in one's self and a sense of right and
wrong are no longer esteemed or even valued.
We have allowed our government and media to say to people that you are not
at fault for what you do. You are victims, little children who can't look
after yourselves.
We have told our minorities that everything that goes wrong is the result
of racism. That you cannot succeed in a racist society.
We have told the dysfunctional that we will look after you no matter how
egregiously you act. We have excused crime saying that poverty creates
crime, when we all instinctively know that it is the crime that creates
poverty.
We have told young women that it's okay to have babies without fathers.
There is no stigma attached - in fact if you have a baby we will shower
you with money and benefits so you can move out of your parent's house and
have even more babies. Even if this guarantees your babies will be raised
in poverty.
We have told young men that it is okay to father as many children as you
can. The government will assume the father's traditional role and look
after the mother and babies.
And most importantly, we have called morals old fashioned and judgmental.
What right does society have to say that something is right or wrong? And
what have we gotten for this? (not to mention the $1 trillion we have
spent on the poor) Citizens who, at the first sign of trouble, stand
around bewildered. You see it on the news. Faces screaming, "Help me!",
"Tell me what to do!"
God help us. We're reaping what we sowed.
