happened again
Sep. 7th, 2005 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starzkiI had insomnia again last
night, but I think it was only for an hour. So I shouldn't
complain. And it was my own fault, too. But I woke up
thinking about a TV show that I don't even watch. I had a 45 minute free association obsession with Prison Break
at 4:30 in the morning. I've not seen a second of the show and
all I know about it is that there's a guy with tattoos trying to get
his brother out of prison and he had a toe cut off and Robin Tunney is
in it. How I managed to stretch this little bit of information
into something I couldn't stop thinking about enough to get back to
sleep is beyond me. So I played my stubborn-ness card again and
managed to make it back to sleep before it got very light out.
Then I watched Oprah this morning and cried my eyes out again. And all I've been talking about to people today is the hurricane. It's just so sad. This may sound terrible, but I'm really concerned about the pets that were left behind. Maybe it's easier to cry over a dog, but that's what's been tearing my heart out at every newscast.
I'm definitely not one to throw blame about when something terrible happens, but where were the right people when they were so desperately needed? By the "right people," I mean people with the authority and the resources to keep some semblance of order. There are so many people who would scream themselves hoarse in denying it, but I think we have all just witnessed that racism is truly alive and well in our society. It's not just that the victims of the hurricane (who were mostly Black) were so neglected for so long, but that the poor and disenfranchised (who are also mostly Black) were the ones without the means to flee the area (no way to leave and no place to leave to). I don't understand the people who deny racism, either. I mean, just open your eyes and it's all right there. I know the first, knee-jerk reaction is to deny racism because, of course, "I'm not racist." Hey, that may be right. But A) Racism doesn't exist on a grand scale, and B) A disproportionate amount of minorities were affected by this disaster, does not cut muster. One of these is obviously wrong and it sure ain't B.
What do I know? Not much. But I really try and learn and see and take in everything I can and try and make some sense of it. I don't shut my eyes to anything, no matter how much it hurts to look at. And it just makes me so sad that it takes thousands of people dying for other people to wake up and force themselves to look at unpleasantness.
I should just shut up and sleep some more. It makes me less rant-y.
Then I watched Oprah this morning and cried my eyes out again. And all I've been talking about to people today is the hurricane. It's just so sad. This may sound terrible, but I'm really concerned about the pets that were left behind. Maybe it's easier to cry over a dog, but that's what's been tearing my heart out at every newscast.
I'm definitely not one to throw blame about when something terrible happens, but where were the right people when they were so desperately needed? By the "right people," I mean people with the authority and the resources to keep some semblance of order. There are so many people who would scream themselves hoarse in denying it, but I think we have all just witnessed that racism is truly alive and well in our society. It's not just that the victims of the hurricane (who were mostly Black) were so neglected for so long, but that the poor and disenfranchised (who are also mostly Black) were the ones without the means to flee the area (no way to leave and no place to leave to). I don't understand the people who deny racism, either. I mean, just open your eyes and it's all right there. I know the first, knee-jerk reaction is to deny racism because, of course, "I'm not racist." Hey, that may be right. But A) Racism doesn't exist on a grand scale, and B) A disproportionate amount of minorities were affected by this disaster, does not cut muster. One of these is obviously wrong and it sure ain't B.
What do I know? Not much. But I really try and learn and see and take in everything I can and try and make some sense of it. I don't shut my eyes to anything, no matter how much it hurts to look at. And it just makes me so sad that it takes thousands of people dying for other people to wake up and force themselves to look at unpleasantness.
I should just shut up and sleep some more. It makes me less rant-y.
