Sunday, September 25, 2005

Exodus and blind arrogance

From today's New York Times:

" QUOTATION OF THE DAY -
"We're going back to the drawing board. With an earthquake or a major terrorist attack, we'd obviously have no warning. We haven't looked at mass evacuation or temporary housing for hundreds of thousands of people."
- SANDRA S. HUTCHENS, chief of the office of homeland security at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"

The government has supposedly been building plans to protect the average citizen since 9/11 happened 4 years ago. Conducting mass evacuations would seem to be very near the top of the list one would think. But then we made that assumption that anybody appointed by the current White House can actually think. The 2 recent examples of mass evacuations were not shining examples of success. Many people spent 12 to 14 hours traveling 50 miles in the malay. We better hope that there is not an attach that requires a mass evacuation from a major city soon. More people will be killed in the exodus that by the cause of the exodus.

On a very different subject, but related to the carnage in Louisiana, is the destruction of wetlands by man that historically protected man from storms such as Katrina and Rita. The wetlands that existed there a 100 years ago acted as a sponge and buffer to the communities that had settled in the bayou. Now with the aggressive building and mindless destruction of the wetlands that natural buffer has been removed.

The arrogant march of mans greed to destroy the wetlands is come full clarity. At least to those who are willing to look for it. Katrina and Rita are not sent by God to punish evil doers. It is not natures wrath. Hurricanes have been around since the earth first had oceans. When man chooses to build housing and businesses in the known common paths of hurricanes and mindlessly destroys the natural protection that nature has provided against the hurricanes, then we must look in the mirror and recognize our own folly. Not blame the unseen God or Mother nature. They had nothing to to do with this. The global warming that is warming the oceans, melting the iceflows and fueling massive hurricanes is all a direct consequence of man's arrogant march to so called progress.

If we do not change our ways to live less destructively and in greater harmony with the natural resources and conditions around us we will pay the price for that choice. (At least our children and their children will).

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