Prior to Hurricane Katrina’s coming on land, it seem as though it was just anotherhurricane and well, I figured that everyone should ahve just left the area and gone to some other safe area. In its aftermath, the whole picture looks totally different. These pictures and videos brings to reality the fact thatdisaster is disaster wherever it happens, whether it is on a poor country in Asia or some third world caribbean or african country.
The survival instincts kick in and people react pretty much the same whether they are rich or poor, third world or first world, Black, White, Asian, Arab or Jew.
Anybody with any blood going through their veins must be touched by what has happened and is still happening in the Louisianna and Mississippi areas and obviously the Federal, State and local governments are stepping in to help to restore those towns and that is expected, becuase as an uncle of mine always says “This is America”. The business community has started to contribute and I am sure that they will continue to contribute becuase generally speaking, this country is a giving and sharing country so we can expect material restoration in short order given the circumstances. My pennies and your pennies will make a difference but emotionally there are going to be some distressed people that I am not sure how it will work out for them, especially those who would not leave becuase they wanted to protect what they have and those that wanted to move but just couldn’t move due to physical limitations. These events will be vivid in their minds for years to come and I can only pray that God will give them peace.
Big thanks must be given to the Rescue folks, Military and Police, Media Networks and Volunteers for helping in this restoration effort, but I find that most of the help and assistance is coming from the same places and people that help usually comes from. On the Tom Joyner Radio Show I heard him saying that BET and MTV were showing “rump shaking” musci videos instead of covering the news of the disaster in spite of the fact that it has obviously affected black folks more than anyone else. I would call on the BET’s and other Black businesses to step up to the plate in the same fashion that they would when they believe that some injustice has been done. I am wondering if their silence is because they cannot blame anybody but God for this hurricane becuase if this was done by the Republican Party then Jesse Jackson and the likes would cancel all other appointments and be hopping all over this situation.
I thought they were interested in helping the Black folks, but it seems that the only time help comes from them is if it is political or they get paid to make these speeches or if it affects donations to their organizations.
My desire in all this is that through this disaster we will come to the reality that whether black or white, we all have the same emotions and needs and hope that from now on, we look at all our decisions from a human stand point and not political or racial rendering many of these political activists on both sides useless and ineffective.