After a long Monday of searching meteoriolgist’s facial expressions and then relief over holding levees, I settled into bed with Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and read:
“If you make people perform a noble duty, it bores them. … If you make them indulge themselves it shames them. But combine the two – and you’ve got them.”
Even after
How much was it REALLY almost Katrina? The non-meteorological world may never know.
But I do know that giving a New Orleanean sleeping in a gas station in northern Lousiana a hasty (and sloppy) Katrina comparison is the equivalent of telling a cancer survivor that the mole on his back looks exactly like that malignant one that led to all the chemo last year.
Per Rand’s observation, past tragedies work wonders to sex up positive, boring news. My point is not so much that it's cruel and tactless (which it is), but that it doesn’t stand out.
It's just part of a barrage of unprecedented but spineless clichés that I’ve allegedly never seen anything like.
Here's a sampling:
(The AP)- Gustav to test lessons of Katrina (CNN Money)
- Hospitals use lessons from Katrina to prep for Gustav (CNN.com)
- A Prophet of Katrina’s Wrath Returns to His Storm Vigil (The New York Times)
- Is Gustav Katrina the Second? (Bellaciao, France)
- Evacuees compare Gustav, Katrina ordeals (USA Today)
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1 comment:
i was listening to an NPR report from individuals who have been evacuated to safe grounds, and who have been (once again) living in sub-standard conditions with four sinks for thousands of people. Evacuees having to wash up with bottled water etc. One person said that he would've had at least as many amenities if he had stayed and weathered the storm at his own house.
It's better to be safe than sorry but c'mon! the richest country in the world can't provide showers to its citizens? pathetic!
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