This is totally all about me.

[ammre]

1) I hit 1000! After 6 years i've finally hit 1000 posts! Whoot!

2) Volunteer! I just spent a week down in New Orleans gutting houses. I'm now looking into joining americorps after i graduate. So many people think there's nothing nearby that they can do to help people, but there's so much that can be done that will help our society. We're so quick to be distracted we forget that there's people in our own backyards who desperately need help and some understanding.

3) Dear literotica and a good portion of your users, you are awesome, Love ammre.

 

[graceanne]

Sounds like an awesome day.

 

[FurryFury]

Congrats!

New Orleans needs so much help still. It's so sad to go there and see how little has been done.

Fury

 

[Etoile]

Girl, you are so freaking fantastic.

 

[callinectes]

Very cool, Ammre.

 

[graceanne]

Girl, you are so freaking fantastic.

I gotta second that. Especially the volunteer bit. You wanna tick me off? Tell me that what I do 'is not my problem'. WHO'S FUCKING PROBLEM IS IT?

 

[Evil_Geoff]

1) I hit 1000! After 6 years i've finally hit 1000 posts! Whoot!

2) Volunteer! I just spent a week down in New Orleans gutting houses. I'm now looking into joining americorps after i graduate. So many people think there's nothing nearby that they can do to help people, but there's so much that can be done that will help our society. We're so quick to be distracted we forget that there's people in our own backyards who desperately need help and some understanding.

3) Dear literotica and a good portion of your users, you are awesome, Love ammre.

Conga rats, dear ammre! *kotc*

 

[MasterPhoenix]

Go you...

 

[ammre]

I gotta second that. Especially the volunteer bit. You wanna tick me off? Tell me that what I do 'is not my problem'. WHO'S FUCKING PROBLEM IS IT?

So many people are stuck on the american dream idea that we can all pull ourselves up by out bootstraps, which is an ideal thought, but not feesable due to the social structure that's set up. So long as i'm alive and human, problems that face other humans will effect me too, so they are things i have to consider and work with.
I encountered a lot of people saying stuff along the lines of, "Why haven't they rebuilt themselves?" The majority of people who are out homes are those who are working class/poor, just on the fringe, probably living paycheck by paycheck. Their only solid asset was washed away or turned into a lump of mold. Now they are living in a trailor, most of their jobs are gone so they are working somewhere else for less money and more time. They are families, trying to afford the necessary stuff they had to buy before the storm. Food, clothing, basic living supples that were all washed away. I'm sure they didn't have a lot of time before the hurricane for extra frivilious activities, I doubt they'll have much time now. It took a team of 30 people a day to gut a one level house. We had about 6 wheelbarrows, many shovels, hammers, crowbars, scop shoves, brooms etc... I'm sure that stuff isn't cheep if a person were to gut their house themselves. Not to mention the cost of the gear, gloves, contamination suits, resperators goggles, sturdy boots. Gas to get to your house since many were displaced all the way to houston, that is assuming you still have a car. So assuming one person has managed all this, and providing their roof wasen't damaged (if rain can get in termites will flourish and your house will basically be on the fast track for demolition) you then have to get a crew to do a full mold removal, involving some bubble and decontamination thing. Or you were lucky enough to finally get your insurance company to pay out some money, you now have to jump through the hoops to have a licensed contractor come and rebuild your house, and there's a wait list. Then you need to get all your government paperwork and that takes quite a while too. It needs to be inspected and such before you can live in it again.
All of that is assuming you have the best possible scenario, that you're not disabled or you have at least one if not two able bodied people in your household, and that you have managed to find even a semi decent paying job and you haven't run across other financial setbacks, like illness, becasue you probably don't have health insurance since your job washed away. The government has offered NO help, and has actually kept foreign aid away.

Oh and to top it off, I got sick down there. I had a slight resperatory infection from mold. I wore a resperator the entire time i was in a house. I got sick simply from spending 2 or 3 days in the streets of some neighborhoods becasue the mold was that bad... If you are a family that has amanged to clean your house and get it fixed, you probably dont want to move back in until at least half if not more of the neighborood has been gutted or else it will be unsafe/unhealthy living conditions.

It just seems so easy to turn away and think, "Not my problem." But if someone has that mentality, they should not wonder later when they are stuck, why no one cares about them.

 

[ammre]

on and if all this is happening right here on our own coast, i can't imagine the time the tsunami victims are having, or the earthquake victims...

 

[graceanne]

So many people are stuck on the american dream idea that we can all pull ourselves up by out bootstraps, which is an ideal thought, but not feesable due to the social structure that's set up. So long as i'm alive and human, problems that face other humans will effect me too, so they are things i have to consider and work with.
I encountered a lot of people saying stuff along the lines of, "Why haven't they rebuilt themselves?" The majority of people who are out homes are those who are working class/poor, just on the fringe, probably living paycheck by paycheck. Their only solid asset was washed away or turned into a lump of mold. Now they are living in a trailor, most of their jobs are gone so they are working somewhere else for less money and more time. They are families, trying to afford the necessary stuff they had to buy before the storm. Food, clothing, basic living supples that were all washed away. I'm sure they didn't have a lot of time before the hurricane for extra frivilious activities, I doubt they'll have much time now. It took a team of 30 people a day to gut a one level house. We had about 6 wheelbarrows, many shovels, hammers, crowbars, scop shoves, brooms etc... I'm sure that stuff isn't cheep if a person were to gut their house themselves. Not to mention the cost of the gear, gloves, contamination suits, resperators goggles, sturdy boots. Gas to get to your house since many were displaced all the way to houston, that is assuming you still have a car. So assuming one person has managed all this, and providing their roof wasen't damaged (if rain can get in termites will flourish and your house will basically be on the fast track for demolition) you then have to get a crew to do a full mold removal, involving some bubble and decontamination thing. Or you were lucky enough to finally get your insurance company to pay out some money, you now have to jump through the hoops to have a licensed contractor come and rebuild your house, and there's a wait list. Then you need to get all your government paperwork and that takes quite a while too. It needs to be inspected and such before you can live in it again.
All of that is assuming you have the best possible scenario, that you're not disabled or you have at least one if not two able bodied people in your household, and that you have managed to find even a semi decent paying job and you haven't run across other financial setbacks, like illness, becasue you probably don't have health insurance since your job washed away. The government has offered NO help, and has actually kept foreign aid away.

Oh and to top it off, I got sick down there. I had a slight resperatory infection from mold. I wore a resperator the entire time i was in a house. I got sick simply from spending 2 or 3 days in the streets of some neighborhoods becasue the mold was that bad... If you are a family that has amanged to clean your house and get it fixed, you probably dont want to move back in until at least half if not more of the neighborood has been gutted or else it will be unsafe/unhealthy living conditions.

It just seems so easy to turn away and think, "Not my problem." But if someone has that mentality, they should not wonder later when they are stuck, why no one cares about them.

They say 'it's not my problem' cause that's the easy way out. They say 'why haven't they pulled themselves up yet' cause then they can be self-righteous, that makes it their problem, which means that you don't have to feel guilty for ignoring the plight of others.

I was listening to a radio station once, and the asshole there was saying that homeless people just aren't trying - they should at least get a job at mcdonalds. I asked K, "pretend your a manager at mcdonalds. You have two people wanting one job. One is me. I'm a mom, I have a house, I'm clean, presentable, and have an excelent work record. I also have no police record. Your other applicant is a homeless guy. He's kinda dirty, has no home, doesn't have the best social skills, and has a police record. Who're you going to hire?"

It reminds me a lot of that poem-type-thing I read in highschool.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

 

[Etoile]

That's a Martin Niemoeller quote, one of my favorites.

 

[graceanne]

That's a Martin Niemoeller quote, one of my favorites.

Yeah, I had to google it, but I found it. I don't know if I've heard of anything else of his, but I read that as a young teenager and have loved it ever since.