stillsostrange: (Default)
stillsostrange ([personal profile] stillsostrange) wrote2005-08-30 02:41 pm

Praying for tidal waves

To all of those people out there with no sympathy for the people left behind, those who are doing what they need to to survive...

I hope you all know how to fucking swim.

Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
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[identity profile] copperwise.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
People picking through wreckage for food or diapers or tampons or clean clothes are not looters. The media is having a great time babbling about looting when the majority of the people are trying to scavenge whatever they can to survive.
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[identity profile] copperwise.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
If you haven't been watching the coverage, then I'm not sure you know what we're all talking about. Righteous commentary about the evils of looting while the camera focuses on a woman in shredded clothing picking through the remains of a neighborhood grocery trying to find diapers or unbroken baby food jars for her naked kid...damn, I hope if you were in that situation you'd put the needs of your child over the moral qualms of otherwise criminal behavior.

Nobody is defending the people stealing from ATMs or jewelry stores. Frankly if I evacuated and came home to find someone had been able to use whatever food I left behind to survive, I'd be grateful that it hadn't gone to waste.

[identity profile] raecarson.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
If you haven't been watching the coverage, then I'm not sure you know what we're all talking about.

Though I am firmly in your camp on the looting issue, the above is a bit unfair. Brit made valid points and carefully qualified her statement. The quantity of media coverage she views neither validates nor negates an opinion on looting.

[identity profile] copperwise.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm afraid I have to disagree. She carefully qualified her statement by admitting she had not been keeping up on the situation about which she was then posting an opinion. She has a perfect right to her opinion on looting as an abstract concept. If she's going to discuss it regarding a concrete and ongoing situation, with people who are following that situation, it would behoove her to know what we're referring to when we discuss it rather than presuming Amanda was defending people stealing VCR's and jewelry.

[identity profile] raecarson.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
This is the qualification to which I was referring:

I'm not talking about missing cans of food or tampons. I'm talking about expensive electronics...

But yes, I see your point that opining about a "concrete" situation requires information.

[identity profile] cpolk.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Imagine you're a New Orleans resident who evacuated. How would you feel to return to your home in a week to find it looted? I'm not talking about missing cans of food or tampons. I'm talking about expensive electronics, and maybe some things that mean a lot to you.

"new orleans wasn't fucking destroyed utterly! YAY! how annoying, my tv is gone."

you're having a snit fit over a television set? jesus. they got lucky. so lucky. because 20 miles to the east would have been all it took to wipe out the whole fucking town and everyone abandoned in it. I'm sure you could have gotten weepy over an entire economic sector losing their lives, but now you're getting all fucking het up about stuff that was left behind when the assumption ran that it was going to be gone anyway.

That blows my mind, it seriously does.

[identity profile] cpolk.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
west!

fuck.

[identity profile] stillsostrange.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
If you can't manage to make a distinction between the people who are breaking open ATMs or vandalizing for the hell of it and the people who have no food, no fresh water, and nowhere to go, then yes, I am defending looters.

[identity profile] madwriter.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I told Chelsea over on her LJ that my main concern about the looting was the fact that they were trying to do it in high winds. I saw footage of some people coming out of a warehouse in 70-80 mph gales, and prayed that they'd safely make it home no matter what they took.

I've been reading a lot today about what was ironically named the Catastrophic Hurricane Evacuation Plan. The more I read it, the more I've been siding with the looters.

[identity profile] cpolk.livejournal.com 2005-08-30 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
exactly. people who value jewelery over LIVES just blow my mind.

I mean nobody is saying that taking dvd players isn't wrong. but shit happens when you lift up your head and say "sweet Legba, I'm not dead! ASHE! let's go get some grub."