Getting On

"Seventeen months after Katrina, nearly 200 people uprooted by a hurricane still live in Mt. Olive Gardens, whole families packed into 200 square-foot FEMA trailers they now call home....There were 5,596 words in the President’s speech last night, and reaction to the fact that not a single one was either Katrina or Louisiana was felt not only here in tiny Mt. Olive Gardens, but all across the Gulf.... Words like ‘relief’ and ‘recovery’ now seem as empty to them as last night’s presidential address."

— CBS’s investigative reporter Armen Keteyian, January 24 newscast.

I was taking a turn around the internet horn this morning when I found this quotation on Brent Bozell's site. I guess Keteyian wanted to tug at the heartstrings with this piece, and it could have worked, had he not mentioned that it's been 17 months since Katrina.

17 months?

I may be a hardhearted SOB when it comes to some things, but I am not hardhearted at all when it comes to people that have lost everything. I feel for people like that, and I want them to do well. I don't like hearing about people that lose their house to a fire, or their lifesavings to some corrupt Wall Street scumbag.

But 17 months? That is a hell of a long time. I can't remember where I was 17 months ago (eighteen, now; that news report was filed in January), but I know that I worked for a different company. Last year -- for a couple of different reasons -- I decided to move on and get another job. So I quit the one company, looked around for a couple of weeks, and latched on to something else.

I am not trying to compare my professional life with a family that has lost everything. However, the line that struck me most in the piece above was this one (emphasis mine):

"Nearly 200 people uprooted by a hurricane still live in Mt. Olive Gardens, whole families packed into 200 square-foot FEMA trailers they now call home..."

I hope that is just the reporter laying it on a bit thick. If the heads of these families are seriously calling a FEMA trailer home, then these families are in serious trouble.

The idea of the hardworking family man is not what it used to be. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath had images of men hunkered down in the dust, worrying about their families ('figuring,' Steinbeck called it), and struggling to find a way to put food on the table. They'd pick oranges for next to nothing, and they'd drive thousands of miles in old jalopies to find work.

Work is all they wanted, however they could get it. They weren't too proud to do anything that would help their children, and they didn't apply to anybody for an assistance program. Assistance programs didn't exist anyway, so they had to roll up their sleeves and get things done themselves, as best they could.

That doesn't seem to be the case today. I didn't see the CBS broadcast, but I will bet millions that Keteyian didn't ask any of these family's adults, "Have you thought of just striking out on you own and not asking for another year's worth of 'relief?'"

Doesn't seem a proper question, nowadays. But honestly, 17 months of sitting in a FEMA trailer is not exactly a portrait by Norman Rockwell. Besides, what is more relief going to bring? It is not going to rewind the clock and make Katrina die in the Gulf without ever reaching the shore. The very definition of relief is that it is temporary. Immediate pain is done away with, so that you can get on with your life. So relief for the victims of Katrina is not the problem. It's the 'getting on' that's in short supply.

I have no right to tell these people what to do, and they would be completely within theirs if they told me where to go. But people must learn to carry on with their lives if they expect to have a life worth living. Starting over is tough, and leaving behind fond memories can be a killer. One shouldn't compound it by reliving the worst memories over and over again every time they fill out another piece of government paper (in triplicate, no doubt).

The one thing that will make bad times disappear is to get your ass in gear. Keeping busy and looking for something new will cure almost every ill that can affect the soul. Sitting and waiting is not the answer to any problem. The longer you wait, the closer it is to the time you are forgotten.

Once you're forgotten, you've only got yourself. Oddly enough, this is what you had in the first place. So you might as well get on with getting on. The sooner the better.