Cynicism After Sandy

Wow, Sandy.  You really packed a wallop, didn’t you?  Good thing I was on top of my game as far as disaster recovery plans go.  The business was spared the wrath of your fury, although several employees didn’t quite fare so well.  One had half the shingles of her roof torn off.  Another was without power for two days.  I, too, lost power thanks to a tree branch falling on some wires, and of course my generator pull-string broke when I tried to get it started (so much for my home DR planning), and so my basement filled with water with no electricity powering the sump pump.  Thanks, Sandy.  You had my anxiety at heart attack levels.  But we all made it through safe.

In the aftermath, central PA did OK.  Yeah, I’ll be busy cleaning up my basement this weekend, but at least now we have power, heat, water, etc.  Life for us has returned to normal.  That can’t be said for others to our east though.

I can’t believe what has happened to towns in NJ.  I have friends and family living in NJ who still are without power and are struggling to find gas and basic necessities.  Sandy was just too much.  Guys, I know you have a lot on your plate right now, and reading this probably isn’t high on your priority lists, but if you need any supplies, LET ME KNOW!  I’ll gladly ship over water, food, toiletries, etc.!

I have to comment on some of the Facebook threads and posts I’ve seen over the past few days.  A few hours before the storm hit, one Facebook “friend” actually made fun of the people who were stocking up on supplies, saying something to the effect of “Do you actually think Pennsylvania will be hit by a hurricane?”  This guy, at least I thought, is rather intelligent, but he obviously has no clue how close Pennsylvania is to the eastern seaboard or how hurricanes work.  He must not watch TV or surf the Internet weather sites.  Or maybe he does, and if that’s the case, his cynicism will be his undoing.  A couple blocks up the road from me, an enormous tree was pulled from the ground from the winds of Sandy.  Yeah, I was one of the ones that ACTUALLY thought a hurricane was going to hit Central PA, and I'm glad I prepared, especially if one of those trees had hit our house.  And yeah, maybe I am a “retard” for nearly walking into that fire in the street at the Hartslog Festival in Alexandria a few weeks ago (read my October 25^th post if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

Another post I saw was from a wife of a volunteer first responder who was crying foul at the people who refused to evacuate, going on and on calling them idiots for having to put her husband’s life in harm’s way just to save them.  While I agree that the people who refused to evacuate, just like the guy in my last paragraph, probably should have heeded the advice of others, no person should be writing negative comments like that toward survivors in a time like this.  Yeah, perhaps they should have evacuated.  And perhaps people in the Amazon should have caught more butterflies so that they couldn’t flap their wings which created the slight breeze which turned into a heavy wind which became Hurricane Sandy which destroyed half of the NJ shoreline.  Perhaps the NJ coastal town municipal workers should have built hundred-foot-high steel walls to keep the waves back.  Perhaps those survivor’s parents shouldn’t have procreated.  People will find fault in anything, it seems, but what makes us a flourishing civilization is our ability to overcome the adversities we are challenged with as communities and groups regardless of how we ended up with those problems.  If you want to be negative and cynical about others in times like this, maybe you should just go live on an island somewhere by yourself.  Just make sure it’s not anywhere that a hurricane will destroy your home and leave with you with nothing, because then you’ll be the one needing help.

I encourage everyone who is reading this to donate money to the Red Cross or the upcoming benefits that will be held.  Send money through text messages as soon as they start posting the numbers.  And for God’s/Heaven’s/Christ’s/Allah’s/Tao’s sake, STOP BEING SO DAMN CYNICAL!