Snow job challenge
I live in Colorado and have gotten more than my share of snow days lately. The worst storm in a while hit just days before Christmas and we really haven't warmed up, so it's all still sitting around collecting extra snow. It is a mess.
The state and cities have been hustling to get roads clear, the USPS delivered on Sunday. All of this in effort for what? I'm guessing that most people had enough food around to survive for a day or two without a trip to the store (or could share). Even without power, we would not freeze to death in an insulated house for a few days - or could surely come up with enough shelter to survive.
It's commerce. It's was Christmas. Some of the most economically powerful days of the year and damnit the STORES MUST OPEN! Trucks must roll. High priced Merry must be made. It wasn't the fuzzy feeling of the season or Gov. Owens wanting to be sure I got to Grandma's safely. It certainly wasn't related to the birth of Jesus Christ (Charlie, we gotta replow 3rd Ave. - a special boychild was born a couple thousand years ago).
Then I'm reading a thread by Trinharder who posts this blood boiling, oft forwarded email of the season "from a right wing evangelical, rapture ready SOB:"
Weather Bulletin - North Dakota
THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT.
North Dakota News
This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after a snowstorm.
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow a nd winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV .
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for sit-in at home checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ours elves.
"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.
[End of cheeseball email - thank you Trinharder]
Trinharder had some good thoughts, perhaps others can post suggestions for response. It was also discussed how these 'friendly' emails never directly say what they are saying. This isn't a 'we are good at recovering from a big snow storm' email, it's a 'lazy people suck' email.
Colorado, North Dakota, Louisiana
CO
Not specified
None assigned
Snow is cozy
That's my point exactly. Folks get snowed in and instead of just hunkering down and living off the surplus that is in most of our houses, everyone has a frantic fever to get out and.... go shopping!!! Wouldn't it be cool if they called a snow day and everyone just let it be. What if they didn't immediately go dig out their car, drive and walk and tsk tsk at the neighbors who didn't, they didn't have to stress about their job and daycare and transpo, they didn't have this urge to bolt to the store and clean out stock of favored items.
I guess my response to the gross forwarded email would be. WOW, North Dakota sounds like a place with a tightly knit community where you can truly count on one another. How fortunate that everyone has prospered, it must be a land of truly great opportunity for all and an effective support system for a hard work ethic. Working together through a storm like that must have involved an incredible amount of cooperation, communication, resources, and unconditional caring. Wouldn't it be wonderful if each community in this country could be so self supporting? How could we work to improve conditions throughout the country so that everyone can experience the sort of nuturant community that exists in this story of North Dakota.
Snow job
Don't fall for it. The snow did not wipe out a city, did not fill up their homes and kill their children. The snow did not consist of toxic waste and dead bodies.
The snow melted and their homes were still there, the electric grid still existed, their cars started. Sometimes you just have to respond with incensed shaming outrage.
easy to make stories up
but "Reaganesque" anecdotes (like the welfare queen or failing family farm) can be quite misleading. Frame it as you will, but the bottom line is that the truth is important to know and tell. There was plenty of efforts to help the people of the Katrina disaster who were turned away by the authorities, and people who tried to leave NOLA who were turned back at the bridge.
Sadly, another bottom line is that to the right-wing noise makers and those who willfully choose to believe them and ignore the facts, the truth doesn't matter; it's the other people who need to be furnished with information through alternative media and sources. A good interview between Bob McChesney and David Brock on the subject of the domination by right wing media can be heard/downloaded at http://www.will.uiuc.edu/willmp3/mediamatters050102.mp3 .
------------------
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2007/01/03/natstorm0103a.html
Food, hay dropped over paralyzed Plains states
By Steven K. Paulson
Associated Press
Published on: 01/03/07
Denver —- National Guard helicopters dropped emergency food bundles and bales of hay for people and livestock trapped by snowdrifts as high as rooftops Tuesday after back-to-back blizzards paralyzed the Plains.
At least a dozen deaths were blamed on a weekend storm that knocked out electricity to tens of thousand of people in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and left herds of cattle without food or water. The blizzard spread a blanket of snow on top of the icy layer left by a storm that hit just before Christmas.
Because of rising temperatures, many highways across the region were clear, but many rural roads remained impassable, and National Guardsmen used Humvees and snowmobiles to reach people trapped in their homes and take them to shelters.
[...]
and yes ... the feds were involved
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=20798
President Declares Major Disaster For North Dakota
Release Date: November 21, 2005
Release Number: HQ-05-380
» More Information on North Dakota Severe Winter Storm and Record and/or Near Record Snow
» En Español
WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that federal disaster aid has been made available to the State of North Dakota to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area struck by a severe winter storm and record and/or near record snow from October 4 - 6, 2005.
[...]
More at http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=5265
PS
Yes this was in 2005, but there is no date on the original spiel, and these stories often echo around the web for years.
send them this link i response to email
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
http://www.snopes.com/katrina/soapbox/dakota.asp
Snow Comparison
Claim: North Dakotans weathered a severe blizzard without requesting
assistance from the federal government.
Status: False.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2005]
[...]
Variations:
E-mailed versions circulated in November 2006 changed the location of
the blizzard-stricken community from somewhere in North Dakota to
Marquette, Michigan, and attributed the article to The Mining Journal
News of that city. While that paper exists, it didn't publish the piece.
December 2006 versions of this item changed the setting to Colorado,
reflecting the paralyzing snowstorms that hit the state during the 2006
holiday season and twice shut down Denver International Airport.
"""""""""""""""""""""""
I tried to copy with the cut and paste but it didn't work properly, but you can save the page as text and then copy a bit of text for a teaser. Before you try to frame anything, first do the research and find out what the truth is.
New! Snow job read, and now it's snowing.
All northerners should be ready for heavy weather. All residents should be ready to hunker down without power, and in the rurals, no power means NO WATER for people or animals. Those that aren't prepared will suffer the consequences. Sad, but true. Northerners are paranoid of weather like this! Because of such storms, we wouldn't live in a house without a woodstove or propane heating. We stockpile food and water year round. We sleep away from rooms that could be smashed by falling trees. We have camping gear that cooks, lights, and runs the radio. We worry about the roof a lot. We worry about the animals. We worry about the well, pump, and septic system. We check in with our neighbors. None of this guarentees we'll survive a storm with 90 mph winds. Wind is the enemy. Snow is the enemy. Freezing rain? Yikes, it makes an icestorm--the worst!!!
Floods? Haven't done that yet, hope I don't ever have to. I was in the thick of a little hurricane--Agnes--and man that was a lot of water in a very short time. But we were tourists, and moved on leaving a mess of destruction on the gulf coast. Southerners should be paranoid of hurricanes, tornatoes, killer thunderstorms, and floods, and surely they are! Since poor or sick people don't have cars, credit cards, and other means of preparing for hurricanes, there has to be some organized effort to evacuate or shelter them adequately. Jesus isn't going to do it, and neither is Bush. I doubt the poor in Colorado were in as dire of a position as the poor in New Orleans last year. I'm guessing the poor in rural Colorado are much like myself--in an aging mobile home barely squeaking by. The poor in New Orleans would kill to be this wealthy. We are stinking rich in land, neighbors, guts, and vehicles. I suspect the poor in New Orleans have plenty of guts, they are now survivors, like us northerners. Many of those people had never seen a storm of that magnitude and had no idea what was in store for them. They do now.
There you go. Logic, facts, and experience. No rapture, not gonna happen. A great novel about this theme is called "Gap Creek" by Robert Morgan. Bottom line, keep a cool head and keep trying to cope. Freaking out is not a good way to react! Dig out and move on. Some people actually enjoy huge storms and the aftermath!
P.S. There's another big one coming again! Hunker down. Where is the El Nino?