Does anyone else not really care about Katrina?

sonnyboy

Ok, some people may call me a heartless bastard for making this thread, but I have to be honest.

I really don't care about the hurricane victims. I highly doubt that the people walking through Walmart with shopping carts full of clothing and electronics would send me one f'ing red cent if I was in need (and I AM in need, by the way).

I just can't find it in my heart to care at all. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks like this, but I've been struggling to survive for the past 2 years and no one has ever lifted a finger to help me. If I can't pay my bills, someone comes and TAKES my home. Does the mortgage company have compassion? No one gives me shit, so I'm not giving shit to anyone else.

People die every day. That's life. We live in a cold, cruel, godless world, and there's no changing that.

AlmostAtheist

Heartless bastard.

Actually, I've always thought it odd that when 1,000 people die in one place over one event, the world mobilizes. But when 10,000 people die daily from [hunger|disease|war] over a country or a continent, it hardly makes the news, much less stirs the emotion.

So while I don't share your dispassionate view, I do understand it.

Dave

under74

I highly doubt that the people walking through Walmart with shopping carts full of clothing and electronics would send me one f'ing red cent if I was in need (and I AM in need, by the way).

Perhaps they used that stuff to barter? No doubt there were looters who didn't give a damn but some people I'm positive took things in order to eat and drink. I understand where you're coming from when you say...

We live in a cold, cruel, godless world, and there's no changing that.

BUT I think there is some changing that...especially in the richest nation on earth.

sonnyboy

I do feel for the children who had no choice but to be in that situation.

As for the situation in general, I'm having a hard time feeling any sort of compassion. I'm not exactly sure why that is. Maybe if I actually were there I'd think differently. It's not that I don't want to care, but I simply can't.

But when 10,000 people die daily from [hunger|disease|war] over a country or a continent, it hardly makes the news, much less stirs the emotion.

Exactly. I guess my topic was made in haste, because I would help them if I could, but why is it OK to ignore others in need and even throw them into the f'ing street if they can't pay their bills? Bad shit happens to good people all the time, yet it's only fashionable to help certain people? Whenever I go to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore I'm met by at least 5 homeless people. Why? Because they know me (they know my money anyway). I've even had lunch with one of them, who was a Vietnam veteran, and he explained how the government gave him the shaft after the war and he's been living on street for over 20 years. Why are people like him ignored? Does a f*cking tornado have to pick him up before anyone will take notice? Why do people walk by him like he's not even f*cking there? I hate this world.

tijkmo

It's not that I don't want to care, but I simply can't.

been there buddy

getting over it

under74

Why are people like him ignored? Does a f*cking tornado have to pick him up before anyone will take notice? Why do people walk by him like he's not even f*cking there?

I don't know....to any of the questions. I understand where you're coming from. This world isn't fair and it's a damn shame. BUT I can't afford to be cold to others in desperate need.

foreword

I just can't find it in my heart to care at all.

It is true that people looting New Orleans wouldn't give you anything, just as much as you can't give them something right now. Where you need to care is to realize you'd be in the same situation if it happened in your area. You'd be in more shit than you are now. You're poor, so am I, but I do feel for those people. There is a lot of stigma attached to poverty.

It must be quite the trip to see millions of dollars being donated, yet no one in New Orleans gets a penny. Why is it that no one is walking around handing out 100 dollar bills to these people so they can start somewhat over. No, no, no....this money must be channeled through the same people who think you're a total loser because you are poor, so of course you'll never see the color of that money. I'm sure the meals that are being donated have a cost of about 30 dollars each....Give me the money, I'll find a cheaper way to eat and I'll have some left over. The bureaucrats don't help people...they help themselves. There's big money in disaster relief, and that's where I stop caring.

Take care, and have a little sympathy for those in the same position as yours.

mark

Cygnus

I feel sorry for them. I also feel sorry for my dying grandmother, dying father, troubled future wife, neighbors in need, MYSELF in dire need. I thank Bog in heaven I'm not in New Orleans proper, but I'm not faring much better. My sympathy guage can only reach a certain limit.

nilfun

I understand where you're coming from.

I don't, but I'm trying to.

Let me see if I have this straight: you resent the help the hurricane victims are getting because so many others needed help (and didn't get it) before Katrina hit?

I know of some who cannot handle day to day pain, so they shut off the caring parts of themselves, so that they don't feel the pain anymore.

The downside to this is that when something does happen that elicits compassion in most people -- the "shut-down" folks are too numb to feel or care about another's suffering.

Could this be what is happening with you? Not attacking -- sincerely trying to understand.

Sunspot

I guess I'm at the opposite end of the pole on this one. I have watched, horrified, when these events unfolded. I have cried so many times at the pictures and the commentator's words on what they have personally seen.

I have rejoiced with tears watching people being plucked off their roofs, only to again feel horror as these same people were sent to live in total squalor. The thought that they were thinking that they were "saved" somehow, only to end up in filth, darkness, intolerable heat with absolutely no food or water----it disturbs me more than I can really say. How DOES one cope with starving and dying babies and sickly and dying older folks all around them?

Despite the fact that there are a number of low-lifes and thugs among the survivors....it does not mean that any justice was served by locking them into these "shelters" under the conditions they were forced to live in. Even convicted criminals are treated better than that! It was and is a total disgrace.

Do I care?

You BET I do!

Does anyone else not really care about Katrina?

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