Thoughts on the Hurricane

Someone sent out a call for responses to the Hurricane. They wanted people to send these reponses. This is what I wrote.

First I will say that I think it is a terrible tragedy and I do understand the desire to rebuild but I think that there is a message that we are missing.

I have never been to New Orleans so I don't have the connection that the people who have visited or lived there have. But I do have compassion and I can't imagine what it would be like to lose everything and not be able to retrieve anything. It would break my heart.

I think that nature is trying to tell us something. Think back just a little bit, the tsunami, multiple hurricane's, and most recently earthquakes. This past weekend I saw a show on public television about a lost city in Asia. They were trying to determine what happened to the city. Why did it get taken over by the jungle? In the end they found that the city had become so big that they had used all their resources, and the toll that the people were taking on the land was too much for it to take. Floods began to take over among other things. The jungle and forrested areas are like sponges and they soke up water. Our cities and towns are not sponges. And the place where they were studying had been a city larger than New York City. Massive tragedy took over the city through natural disasters which probably led to a huge death toll and then disease. I believe that is what is happening to our world today. As it has repeatedly happened throughout history.

I don't think that it is a good idea to rebuild because it is certain to happen again. Certian. Not probably or possible. It will happen again. How many more people have to die before we listen to what the earth is telling us? We are over-populated, we don't take care of our world, and we war like there is no tomorrow, we use all our natural resources and cut down trees because they ruin the "view". Soon, there will be no tomorrow and it will be our fault because we did not read or listen to the signs. We did not try to stop the maddness. We did not respect the land. We will pay the price...many already have.

We are stubborn and we want what we think belongs to us. We want to be resilient and build it up again to prove that we can carry on. It's a nice romantic sentitment. But will our children or their children be the ones who suffer because we weren't going to let mother nature get the best of us? What are we trying to prove by rebuilding? That we can't be knocked down? Well, we CAN be knocked down and maybe we should wipe off the dirt, tend to the wounds and say, " Maybe this isn't going to work out. We had a beautiful city and now it's gone. Let's build a memorial to our city and it's people so that others don't forget. Let's use the money it would take to rebuild and give it to those who lost so much in this tragedy."

You should always listen to your Mother.

But again, I know that I don't fully understand. I have never been there. What I do understand is that I don't want more people to die because of human stubborness and determination. This has happened too many times. We must learn.

Peace,
desdamona