I’m trying to figure out why all these hurricane relief concerts don’t ring true.<\/p>\n
Katrina is not 9\/11.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, a lot of people died, but they’re fundamentally different.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you worked in the government, no one foresaw 9\/11.\u00c2\u00a0 We were just walking happily through life, and we got smacked upside the head.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only when we weren’t looking, but when we weren’t expecting it, when we couldn’t even CONCEIVE of it.\u00c2\u00a0 Some alien outside force.\u00c2\u00a0 Did we have to worry about this for the rest of our lives?\u00c2\u00a0 Boogie men 24\/7?<\/p>\n
That’s what we were afraid of.\u00c2\u00a0 Irrational suicide bombers blowing us up at any moment.\u00c2\u00a0 We had to be on guard.\u00c2\u00a0 We had to be ALERT!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, until recently, and isn’t it funny it hasn’t happened recently, not much after the last election, all too often the government told us it was code YELLOW, or RED!\u00c2\u00a0 And that this weekend something could happen!\u00c2\u00a0 Not that we could do anything about it.<\/p>\n
And we were concerned with those affected by the tsunami because these poor souls were just that.\u00c2\u00a0 Poor.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t have the luxury of living in the western world, where we had modern detection systems, modern information systems, where this couldn’t happen.<\/p>\n
But they told us Katrina was going to make landfall again and again and again.\u00c2\u00a0 Those of us living on the opposite coast were aware, and prepared.\u00c2\u00a0 But what we could not foresee was the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Oh, we could handle death and destruction.\u00c2\u00a0 Happens every day in the good ole’ U.S.A.\u00c2\u00a0 Accidents are part of life.\u00c2\u00a0 But we counted on the government to clean up as best it could.\u00c2\u00a0 For everybody to pitch in and make things better.\u00c2\u00a0 Like they had in disasters past.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t think anybody would die AFTER the disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t think lawlessness would rule.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t think we’d be viewing the equivalent of a third world country on our television screens.\u00c2\u00a0 And, THIS FREAKS US RIGHT OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 Because, this isn’t mother nature, or them, this is us.<\/p>\n
Who are we?\u00c2\u00a0 Do we bear individual responsibility for our survival?\u00c2\u00a0 Has the concept of a safety net evaporated and we must prepare at all times for physical and economic disaster?\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t declare bankruptcy anymore, if hell descends upon you, you must have a plan to get out in ADVANCE!\u00c2\u00a0 Or, the foresight to not get caught in hell to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 As if you can see hell coming.<\/p>\n
The Christian values our society was built upon.\u00c2\u00a0 Helping one’s brother…\u00c2\u00a0 What if you’re not Christian?\u00c2\u00a0 What if you’re not of the same color as the majority of Christians?\u00c2\u00a0 Kids in parochial schools were transferred to new parochial schools essentially instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 Those going to public school in New Orleans…they’re whiling away their days in the Astrodome with no instruction, none foreseen for months.<\/p>\n
We thought we lived in a CAN DO society.\u00c2\u00a0 Do we really live in a CAN NOT?<\/p>\n
And how high can we tolerate the price of gasoline?\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you drive an SUV you can’t get rid of it tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t the government say SUVs were safe?\u00c2\u00a0 The right car to buy?\u00c2\u00a0 Would they let us buy vehicles with such shitty gas mileage if they foresaw a gasoline shortage?<\/p>\n
But did they foresee a shortage?<\/p>\n
Who’s minding the store?<\/p>\n
Who’s SUPPOSED to be minding the store?\u00c2\u00a0 Is it the federal government, the state government or the LOCAL government.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, as referenced above, is it really only about me.\u00c2\u00a0 Is America just a bunch of mes.\u00c2\u00a0 All fighting for survival.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S scary.<\/p>\n
And, make no mistake, we’re scared.<\/p>\n
We don’t expect to die because no one reaches out and takes care of us when misfortune appears.<\/p>\n
We can KIND of get our head wrapped around the concept of not having national health insurance, but can we count on the fire department, the police…a helicopter to rescue us if we’re stranded in the mountains?<\/p>\n
Well, if we just do what they tell us to do, everything will be all right.\u00c2\u00a0 But at dinner last night someone brought up the concept of the mayor of Los Angeles telling us we all had to go to Staples Center to weather a natural disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Not one single soul at the table would go.\u00c2\u00a0 Be there with all different races and gang members?\u00c2\u00a0 With possibly NO police force?<\/p>\n
NO WAY!<\/p>\n
So musicians getting on TV asking for money…that doesn’t work for us.\u00c2\u00a0 Because as much as we’re concerned about those directly affected by the hurricane, we’re more worried about OURSELVES!<\/p>\n
Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow…when the apocalypse hits, they’re covered.\u00c2\u00a0 U2 and Neil Young too.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got their money, their connections, their retinue, their safety net.\u00c2\u00a0 They ain’t gonna let us stay at THEIR house.\u00c2\u00a0 They ain’t gonna fly us out of danger in THEIR private jet.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that it’s about criticism of them, it’s just that when they get on the tube and sing their songs it’s just not going to make us feel better.<\/p>\n
Oh, it used to be that musicians were above the game.\u00c2\u00a0 For a while there anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Artists inviolate.\u00c2\u00a0 Who followed their hearts.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they all have endorsement deals with giant corporations who will take care of them in a pinch.\u00c2\u00a0 Their songs just don’t resonate as truth within us.\u00c2\u00a0 You can hear the money in their performances, you can’t hear the despair.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t SEE the despair.<\/p>\n
And make no mistake, the people in New Orleans are desperate.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re anxious.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re verging on desperation too.<\/p>\n
We want someone to address our desperation.\u00c2\u00a0 Not to tell us everything’s gonna be all right, but whip out some pie charts, explain where all the money is, and how we can depend on institutions, how we can drop our fear that the country will slip into lawlessness in OUR backyard.<\/p>\n
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I’m trying to figure out why all these hurricane relief concerts don’t ring true. Katrina is not 9\/11.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, a lot of people died, but they’re fundamentally different.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you worked in the government, no one foresaw 9\/11.\u00c2\u00a0 We were just walking happily through life, and we got smacked upside the head.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-2k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}