i told you so #1.

Signs that the Lightbringer isn't making it all better: Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison.

I should feel sorry for these people. As a reasonably compassionate human being with a rudimentary Christian upbringing, I should be donating to the Red Cross and sending boxes of stuff up north to help. But other than staying in contact with a few friends in that area and asking what I can do for them specifically, I've done nothing. Nor will I.

All these celebrity-types have had fundraiser after fundraiser. Everything you see asks you to spare some change for the hurricane victims. Where is this money going?

The Outer Banks got shellacked, too. A dear friend's daughter lost her entire business because of this storm. She's not sitting back and whining for government help; she's wading through water and sand to salvage what she can and crank it back up. Hatteras Island is still cut off from civilization. The folks there are simply shrugging it off and getting back to normal. The Eastern Shore is still a mess, but I don't hear them whining for handouts.

So it's just the Tri-state area – the very cradle of civilization, we're led to believe – that can't extract itself from this mess. That is dependent on Mother Government for everything and willing to prostrate itself to The Anointed One and his minions in order to get what they need.

I should feel sorry for these people.

I don't. Especially toward the whiny girl highlighted in the article. Perhaps I can spare a dose of charity for those who truly don't have any other means but not for a perfectly healthy woman in her early twenties without any other attachments who could get up and leave said "concentration camp" for another part of the country, get a job waiting tables and a cheap apartment, and re-establish herself with a degree of normalcy.

Is it easy? No. Is it frightening? Absolutely. Is it better than being dependent on the government?

Oh hell yes.

But since she's apparently used to being dependent on the government, and likely voted for that to continue, she feels as though she has no other route than to sit where she is and complain. She probably feels entitled to do so.

Hey, we're all moving Forward, right?

__________

H/T: Aftermath News, where the commenters hit it right on the head.

Comments

[beth]

It isn't like this country hasn't already experienced a devastating storm before. Did we learn NOTHING from Katrina, most especially how poorly the govt functions in these large-scale situations? I have trouble mustering a lot of compassion, too. I tend to comparmentalize it, though. The person whose pantry was washed away, I want to help with food. The people in a high rise who couldn't be bothered to stock up and were looking for sustenance in the first 36 hours, not so much.

[Chris]

I have past the point of caring about these issues. All it does is show the entitlement masses waiting for more hand outs. I am thinking about going into hibernation for the next three years. I will come out to see how the Repubs handle the next primary and then determine if it's time to move to the wilds of the west, or stay put in the midwest. As long as I have my yarn, knitting needles, and sewing machine, i can survive. LOL! I may have to trade clothing for food though, cause I suck at growing things.

[Karen]

Well said. I feel a bit guilty not sending a few bucks to the Red Cross but I'm worrying about that fiscal cliff I see up ahead. I'll need those bucks if I want to hold on...