Lovely Rita
damned if you do
by Ross Vick
On Thursday a family living along the Gulf Coast called to say their fair city had announced a mandatory evacuation. We have some spare room now that our two oldest (of four) are at college. In moved "cuz" and her husband, two children, mother in law and two cats. No one was expecting anything but the worst based on Katrina. As it turns out, their city was not affected at all. They returned to find everything in order and they will now go about the business of unpacking and un-boarding their home. They didn’t have to leave at all, but had they not, Murphy’s law dictates that their home would be a pile of splinters. So, we make educated decisions and not complain about the ramifications. Hey, at least we got a long over due family visit out of the deal and it was truly a case of “all’s well that ends well.”
For those in the path of Rita, our prayers and thoughts go out for you. For those spared the rage of the storm, we too think of you and nature, in her unpredictable way, as she scrapes, scours and tries to make new again what man tries so hard to put asunder. Those of us a wee bit older remember the margarine commercial in which the bolt of lighting flashes and an explosion of thunder is followed by this line: “It’s not nice to fool mother nature.” Well, we keep trying!
And yet, all we do is delay by a generation or two the inevitable. Another commercial comes to mind: “Pay me now or pay me later.” If we as a society determine to fix things right the first time—this time-- so we can then turn our attention to the important task of educating and feeding, clothing and sheltering the world’s needy population so much so that we won’t have to spend the worlds treasury on correcting problems of our own doing.
I was at Austin City Limits yesterday and heard and saw some great performers. Coldplay was the headliner. Tens of thousands of people were there and saw-literally though a thick layer of dust-a great show. As I walked out of the event grounds to leave I was sickened by all of the trash the thousands of “socially aware and enlightened” concert goers left in a layer on the 15 acres of meadows and fields. If everyone leaving had picked up two or three bottles and a wad of paper, the place could have been clean in minutes. As it was everyone was content to walk over, through and around the trash, not bothering to pick a thing up. As I placed an arm load of empty water bottles in a recycling bin, I realized that for all of our postulating about global warming, fossil fuels, oil shortages, toxic waste, polluted aquifers, landfill runoff and the like, our enlightened society isn’t any more willing to do the simple things to take the steps forward than we were back in the day. In that we are so very much alike.
I guess when we all realize that all of Mother Nature’s attempts at reclamation can’t clean up our trash and our messes any more, we’ll decide to get serious about treating with dignity this planet we all share and call home.
Not sure exactly where that soapbox came from, but (one last TV commercial moment) the power of tear in the Chief’s eye as he surveyed the pollution of this once pristine land from the back of his pony made a lasting impression. I very much felt his pain looking through the dust at the stage 200 yards away, wishing that Rita would have shared about ten minutes of rain and some breeze with Austin.
