Scotch Files: "It's Obvious" Edition

To clarify the title, there is nothing more obvious to talk about than Katrina and her devastation of Mississippi, LA and other places. I have not been too much involved with everything going on, due to not being home. But considering the damage, it's not hard to keep somewhat abreast of what is going on.

As a matter of fact, there is too much going on. Katrina has exposed many things about this country that some people have dedicated their lives to upholding or ignoring. From news reports and footage alone, I have personally seen some very questionable things. Many survivors of Katrina's power were left homeless and hungry. A lot of those people have found themselves "finding" or "looting" various stores for neccessities that, I am taking for granted even as I type this.

There have been numerous media outlets covering this situation and there have been various adjectives used to describe the chaos that is going on in New Orleans. These adjectives have lead many in the black community to yell "foul" or pictures of African-American survivors being described as looters, while whites have been said to be "finding" food. I have yet to see one media outlet describe this same event in the two different manners, so I can not really fault one reporting service using one adjective while another uses a more "aggressive" description to report the story.

Either way you slice it, it is looting. The thing is, I can find no blame with anyone looking for necessities to continue surviving. There is this thing called "Relative Morality" which simply means your morals are relative to the situation at hand. This may not sit well with the "black and white" people of the world, but I am not one of them. So the thing is, people are instinctively surviving. Going off of human nature to enhance their chanes of seeing another day, engaging in another day of survival. The problem is, people always seem to take things too far. Maybe this is the stance of the aforementioned "black & whites." The fact that people took the liberty to steal TVs, guns, etc. is ridiculous. And it is not just relegated to the aftermath of tragedies. Folks did the same thing in the L.A. riots in the early 90s. It's almost like a Fox tv special, "When Human Nature Goes Wrong."

So now, already facing the remains of a city Katrina left behind, workers, volunteers, and civil servants are having to halt their recovery efforts because they are being assaulted and in some instances killed. This whole situation is just making me sick to my stomach. And I say that sitting in an air conditioned office building with clean, dry clothes and a full stomach. So what sense is that making?

I know bad things are nothing new, but when folks said, "it's a whole new world out there after graduating college," I would have never guessed so many things could happen in such a short 5 years. From 9/11 to Tsunamsis, snipers to war, we have been living in some "interesting" times as of late. But these are not the only reasons my stomach is feeling queasy. Look at the gas prices!

I am lucky and fortunate to be able to have enough financial flexibilty to sustain the sudden spike in gas prices. But, as I paid $2.85, all I could think about was the people who really don't have money "left over" from their paychecks. We could go into the debate about giving themselves a better chance to earn more money by going to school, etc., but that is another convo for another day. The fact remains that if things continue it will be cheaper for some folks to stay at home than go to work. Crazy right?

I remember last year, when gas prices approached $2, thinking that I would never pay more than $2 for gas. And at the time I was driving 50 miles one way to work. Now, a year later I am paying more than 40% more for a gallon of gas. I can't imagine living in CA or Chicago right now. Thank goodness I cut 20 miles off of my one way commute. Back to the point though, someone has to do something about the gas prices. Everything has a price before it completely prices itself out of the market place, I hope we never get there. Of course, that is an extreme circumstance, but how many other things would you have thought to be extreme last week? A year ago? Five years ago?

There is one other reason why I am scared of what Katrina has done to us. She/ it has made us focus on one thing and push everything else to the backburner. These are the times that important decisions are made. The tail has a natural disaster, so there is no need to "wag the dog." The dog is wagging back & forth in Katrina's treacherous winds.

To clear things up, "wagging the dog" is a metaphor for what a magician would call "creating a diversion" so they can pull of the trick "right before your eyes." There was a movie starring Robert Dinero and Dustin Hoffman called "Wag the Dog." The premise is simple. Create an illusion to focus the people's attention and while everyone is looking one way, conduct business that would generally cause an uproar.

I am not insinuating that this is actually taking place, but what better time than now to allocate more funds to a pointless war, send more troops, take away certain civil liberties for the sake of "national security." All I am saying is watch what the magician and his "beautiful assistants" are doing while we are suppossed to be looking at what Katrina left behind.

I pray for everyone being affected by Katrina and hope that things get better sooner rather than later.

Disclaimer: I know I touched on a lot of different topics. Hopefully, this post flows when you read it the way it did as I typed it. I will be back to touch some of the things more in-depth.

Stay up and keep your eyes on everything!