Reality Sucks

(not about walking, but please read anyway)

While many of us would much rather continue to be blissfully unaware of what goes on in the world we inhabit, sometimes the it's impossible to ignore some very sad truths. A very good friend of mine, who has made several trips to the Katrina affected area wrote this very passionate "rant" about the conditions down there. Whether you agree or disagree with the administration's handling of the disaster, his first person account of the story is worth a read.

"I ’m going to make this quick so please bear with me, on my third trip down here, I have the unfortunate news to report that its still a total mess down here. Sorry to "preach to the choir" but there is still a lot of need down here, more than you can imagine if you haven't made the journey. Folks are now getting what were their homes demolished by bulldozers due to the health hazards they cause – people are getting sick and staying sick. There are still hundreds of families living in tent cities, there’s wreckage EVERYWHERE and again, desperate need for help. Let me remind you, this is in our country…. You know that one that you live in?

Yes there has been some progress, its not like 2 months ago, but there is no reason that our federal government needs to be pumping MILLIONS of dollars a week rebuilding a country that we just spent BILLIONS of dollars on “smart” bombs to destroy, a country that does not even want us there anymore, while American Citizens are picking through boxes of old clothes for something warm to wear this winter! Why am I so bothered? I never even gave a darn about The South, “stupid back country rednecks. That's what they get for living near the damned beach”… That was all before meeting some of the nicest, most gracious people in my life down here in the past few months. I won't go on too much about the people: just imagine how pissed you would be if all of your stuff was gone and your dogs were drowned... now smile and hug someone you love because that’s what you get from a "survivor". Its the strongest testament to The Human Spirit I have ever witnessed, the ability to feel love and trust toward a total stranger, when all you have left to show of yourself and everything you have ever accomplished in life is lying around your feet, ruined by saltwater and oily sludge.

I know its hard to give a shit, when you’ve got Tsunami's, Suicide Bombers, Earthquakes in Pakistan, and those great new 300 dollar heating bills to contend with, but please, try to give a tiny shit. What can you do? Well writing a check to the Red Cross may make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but if you really want to get something done?

I don’t know... you have some crappy old 386 PC or a laptop lying around that’s full of viruses and wont boot up anymore? Send it down & someone here can fix it and put it to great use…. write a letter to some editor, wondering why we need to know about “who was really wearing underwear at the golden globes” when we could be getting some real human interest stories from real humans! Hell, try writing a congressman and asking if giving all of your tax money to a military contractor is as stimulating to the economy as rebuilding a community about the size of England? So you have Spring Break coming up and you really can’t afford to go to South San Padre Island? Come down here and swing a hammer. There are dozens of places to crash and the beach is empty (and you can still get tossed)! You got some lame job that wont let you get any time off? QUIT! (Not really).... I don’t know, even if you don’t do anything; just keep these people in your head. Remember what you have the next time you bitch about scraping the frost off of your window in the morning.

Well that’s it... And thanks if you actually read this far. Just remember this, the stuff you see about New Orleans, that was really, really bad, and it makes good images for the front page, but that was pretty much caused by a slow rising flood, while the rest of the Gulf Coast (much bigger than Nawlins) was destroyed by some crazy ass winds followed by one very large wave, or “storm surge”, a really freaking big wave that came in fast: the coast was pretty much hydro formed flat after a really bad blow dry. Have you ever been to a batting cage and stood in front of the 90 mph ball machine? These winds were blowing like 150mph, which is totally nuts. Now please go climb the biggest tree you can find and stay there for 15-30 hours and tell me that this country can continue to turn its back on itself.

There are some clips of the footage I have been shooting down there on my site, you may recognize some of the music that I’ve used".
Clickhere to access Kevin's website.