Thoughts on Harvey

[readera]

Here is a short piece I wrote today while thinking about Hurricane Harvey and its effects. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tragedy has a way of revealing people's inner truth.

Some people help without hesitation, rolling out trucks of food, supplies and hope. They serve meals and organize shelters. They open their stores and businesses and offer the help they can. The help you would have paid full price for last week. Before the storm.

Other people say 'our thoughts and prayers are with you'. Empty buildings the size of a stadium that echo with empty words, are only filled after public shaming spurs them into action. Vulnerable are left without explanation or guidance by the agencies that should have taken care of them. They were not taken care of before the storm.

Troops in uniforms are sent out leaving behind worried spouses and children just starting a new school year. Deployed to a disaster zone only a few hours from their home base. My hope is that they are there to help and not to do the harm on orders from our commander in chief. Some may go willingly, glad to help their country in a time of need. They were training and working hopefully for the this, before the storm.

We remain here, safely inland, waiting. The storm is not over, the tolls count ever upwards. Soon we will see prices soar, of gas and energy and other things not yet known. Soon we will see how our President will react. If he will step up as others have done, or step aside as we wish him to. He may do has he has done thus far, standing in the way of helpers, tearing down protections and telling lies. The same thing he did before the storm.
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I am not too far from the worst part of Harvey's devastation, only a few hours drive away. We got rain and winds but soon our area will be a shelter for many affected by the storm. Please donate wisely, if you can. Money and blood are what people need most at this point and it is harder to get donations to the affected areas. Indivisible has a guide on how to give and how to advocate for help from our countries leaders. NPR has a detailed list of who you can give too. Please be sure to give responsibly so that your money will go to those in need.

Some places helping with relief efforts include local grocery store chain HEB, and many other local businesses and individuals.

You may or may not have heard of the Joel Osteen scandal. He runs a mega church out of a former stadium. They claimed to be inaccessible and asked people to seek shelter elsewhere. They later opened as a shelter after extreme protest from the community.

Meanwhile local Mosques are opening their doors to people who may hate them, without being asked. :)


Hurricane Harvey isn't over yet. Keep us in your thoughts and actions, now and in the months ahead. We're going to need it. 

Comments

[zesty_pinto]

I've been keeping track of Harvey's wake. Glad to hear the rain's finally stopping (although the reservoirs aren't clearing for a long while from what I've heard). I have a friend whose parents are in Corpus Christi so they were thankfully safe, though I kept telling her to dare her parents to throw a bag of poo at Trump--she told me joke's on me and they voted for him, so I dared her to throw a bag of poo at them. Ha!

Joel Osteen annoys me so much, and every time I see that large house of his with the three pools and the gigantic acreage, I remember that every time he brings up some reaction. Hypocrisy like that knows no bounds. Likewise, I've seen people comment on looting, which has been relatively small except in the case of perishable items that are going to be marked as a loss for the owners anyway. And then his other response was to start a relief fund that has a minimum of 50 dollars??

I'd also throw in props for a freaking furniture seller basically opening his furniture stores to offer refuge. The man admits it comes at a loss, but I'm hopeful that business will be awesome for him and people won't forget long after things have settled. I also love how some folks have reacted in general. In comparison to Katrina, there was more of a reaction and more of an attempt to prepare. I got to admit though that after listening to the simulator on Mighty Ike half a year ago, it drove me crazy that no one still took any of this to task since they predicted all of this so readily.

Glad you're all right!

[readera]

That furniture store and all of the other store owners are awesome. It makes me so happy to see good people doing good things.