Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: "Here's Help, Now Leave"
Frodo has always had a very good memory. He remembers exactly how he felt when the President was shot, the wonder of the night when the Astronaut stepped onto the Moon, and even the first forced kiss laid upon him by Kitty Kreft. Frodo recalls telephone numbers more than thirty years old, and can return to the front door of a home or business he visited no more than once or twice when he was a very young Hobbit. It is a very mixed blessing.
Suffering is something that also stays in memory. The loss of life and property on the Gulf Coast is an astronomical burden which weighs heavily on all the Citizens of Middle Earth. The outpouring of feeling and support for the victims has been very gratifying. Things are changing, however, and Frodo can't seem to separate the pathos from progress, and that is what is noted below.
Capitalists believe that one takes responsibility for his own life, and that even disaster comes with a point at which assistance is no longer necessary as long as the individual is mentally and physically able to fend for himself. Human beings, Frodo believes, experience inertia when torn from the normality of life. Grief and self-pity may continue as long as necessary, and sometimes they both continue longer than expected or necessary.
The capitalists and the victims are coming into conflict. The capitalists are setting dates at which temporary housing assistance ends. Complaints are seen in the media that victims seem to be "taking advantage," and are not exercising sufficient effort to find work or to re-establish their independence. The victims are hesitant to return to an area where levees remain questionably safe, where neither electricity nor water have been re-established for residences, where schools are still closed, and where the dangers of toxic waste are ever-present.
The people of Orleans were the poorest of the poor. Poverty and its' problematic causes were there all along, and they were not erased by the kindness of strangers during a crisis. The problems were merely moved into other towns and cities with the victims. Many of those towns and cities truly believed that there were no problems such as these in our great land, that they had been corrected by time.
It is too bad that people in these towns and cities do not share Frodo's memories. People make do, they just don't make do at the same level, or the same pace, or in the same manner. America has found that there are a lot more poor people than they thought, and they have no idea how to deal with the problem. They have forgotten what Abraham Lincoln said about poor people, and that God loved them.
George W. Bush returns from another vacation tomorrow, and he will tell us how well he has managed the pre-emptive war. He will tell us all that any mistakes weren't his fault, it was the result of "bad intelligence." He must think that changing subjects will make Frodo forget. He wouldn't lie about it, would he?
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:00 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, November 27, 2005 9:06 PM EST
