Just Not A Funny Day
So I log on to check my email today and see a headline for this story on Yahoo. At first I thought it was just a shocking headline where they would say like over the last 30 years there have been so many deaths due to this, that and the other thing. The title that the DSL home page teased with was Thousands dead, Millions Homeless in Asia. It didn't occur to me until much later in the day when I was listening to the news broadcasts on the radio that I had skipped over a news item of current and devastating impact. It wasn't some form of bird flue killing a couple hundred a year over the last fifty years or the nomadic peoples of an under developed country but people going about their daily business when walls of water came crashing in.
Of course the local news coverage had to find how this tragedy affected Chicago. They searched out any and all vacationing in the area or with family ties to that area. This isn't hard to do in a melting pot city like Chicago. We have a little bit of almost every cultural group here and more coming in every day. Normally I would foam at the mouth about crap local coverage of a story but I was much to shocked by what I saw and heard. One guy was on the phone to the local news talking about how he and a friend grabbed a telephone pole to try and anchor themselves and were ripped away almost immediately sent off in different directions and how he doesn't know if his friend survived. I couldn't believe the number of video tapes already being played. What kind of person sees monster waves coming in and just stands there staring at it through a video camera. Run dummy!
Earlier tonight they aid the official death toll was twenty three thousand but that estimates put it closer to forty thousand. And this is just right now. Disease starvation and accidents will claim many more. When I heard that we had only ear marked fifteen million for disaster relief I had to wonder if that is al we are sending or if that is all The President can promise outright without going before congress. This is one of those times I wish I knew more about how the government worked. While fifteen million may seem like a lot to an individual I betting that money will be burned through in days. The talking heads on the television made mention of how the forces from the wave, not the earthquake itself, moved an island a hundred feet to the south and pretty much destroyed everything in its path.
This disaster is still so very unreal to me. My mind can not fathom just how far reaching the effects will be and how long the relief effort will go on. I just hope it doesn't disappear form the news cycle in a couple days so that we can hear more celebrity gossip and diet fad "news."
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Of course the local news coverage had to find how this tragedy affected Chicago. They searched out any and all vacationing in the area or with family ties to that area. This isn't hard to do in a melting pot city like Chicago. We have a little bit of almost every cultural group here and more coming in every day. Normally I would foam at the mouth about crap local coverage of a story but I was much to shocked by what I saw and heard. One guy was on the phone to the local news talking about how he and a friend grabbed a telephone pole to try and anchor themselves and were ripped away almost immediately sent off in different directions and how he doesn't know if his friend survived. I couldn't believe the number of video tapes already being played. What kind of person sees monster waves coming in and just stands there staring at it through a video camera. Run dummy!
Earlier tonight they aid the official death toll was twenty three thousand but that estimates put it closer to forty thousand. And this is just right now. Disease starvation and accidents will claim many more. When I heard that we had only ear marked fifteen million for disaster relief I had to wonder if that is al we are sending or if that is all The President can promise outright without going before congress. This is one of those times I wish I knew more about how the government worked. While fifteen million may seem like a lot to an individual I betting that money will be burned through in days. The talking heads on the television made mention of how the forces from the wave, not the earthquake itself, moved an island a hundred feet to the south and pretty much destroyed everything in its path.
This disaster is still so very unreal to me. My mind can not fathom just how far reaching the effects will be and how long the relief effort will go on. I just hope it doesn't disappear form the news cycle in a couple days so that we can hear more celebrity gossip and diet fad "news."
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posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 4:35 AM
1 Comments:
I read an article last night that said the earth actually wobbled on it's axis from the force of the earthquake.
I also was stunned to see headlies like "Asian Disaster Will Be the Costliest Yet" I coudn't read on for fear that they will talk only of monetary cost and not the cost of generations of people wiped out.
Overall, I would have liked to see our countries' media respond as strongly and compassionately as it did over 911, and that hasn't happened. I think I feel the same disconnect as you do Rich,as if I can't fathom how real the disaster was partly because the coverage isn't on what a hideous tragedy it was. I guess I made up my mind yesterday that I would find out a way to do something to help the survivors and seek info outside of the standard media outlets. So far I have only found this guy at www.skylarksings.com He's an author and a homeschooling dad and his parents and family have been involved with helping the people of India in the coastal areas for years as they tried to protect their mangroves from being forrested. He is collecting relief money which will be sent directly to families in the area they work in, which got hit. Anyway, try out the link and email him if you are interested. I trust the guy. www.skylarksings.com
KC
Relaxed Homeskool
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