Aaron Roe(bot) Fulkerson Open source entrepreneur and digital viking.

I got this email today. I was rather offended. Here is the original email:

—–Original Message—–

Subject: Catagory “5″ Blizzard Emergency

This is an actually weather bulletin from a county emergency manager just outside a small town in western North Dakota after a recent snow storm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event — may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” — with a historic blizzard of up to 44″ inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10′s of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come….
FEMA did nothing….
No one howled for the government…
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV…
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor’s did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit – or report on this category 5 snow storm.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards…..
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House….
No one looted…
Nobody – I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything either.
No Larry King, No Bill O’Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
And
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families.
Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.
We Fired up wood stoves.
Broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is “Work or Die”.
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for sittin’ at home’ checks.
Even though a Category “5″ blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early…we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
“In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world’s social problems evaporate.”
It does seem that way, at least to me.. I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe,, SOME people will get the message,, The world Does not owe you a living….

—–My Response—–

No, I did not enjoy this.

Anyone who compares a blizzard, regardless of the magnitude, to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane simply doesn’t know what a hurricane is. Let’s not even take into account the tragic flooding of unprecedented proportions that hit a city the size of New Orleans. Not even Fargo/Moorehead, which seems to require FEMA assistance every seven years is remotely close to the size or splendor of New Orleans. Nope, not even the entire population along the banks of the Red River, which seems to require FEMA assistance every so often, which is rewarded with assistance from FEMA and the federal government every so often without delay, without question, without the rest of the United States suggesting that maybe they shouldn’t rebuild their dinky little towns along a river which, generally speaking, flood the towns every seven years.

The city of New Orleans alone has a population of 1.2 Million people. That’s just New Orleans. If you count the impacted cities you’re well over 2 Million people. Now, there are estimates that about 60% of the population evacuated. So, let’s say that approximately 1.2 Million people of the 2 Million (probably less) were trapped in the impacted area out of power, under water, out of water, starving, begging for help from the government that they have invested their tax dollars in. No one came for over a week. Thousands died as a result of this. North Dakota has a total population of 642,200 people. That’s the entire state. Tens of thousands without power? Gee…wow. Try over 1.2 million people without power, water, food. Melt snow? Gee, that’s great. There was no water for these people in New Orleans. Interestingly enough, FEMA had truck loads of bottled water they didn’t truck in. Why? Ask FEMA. It took them more than a week. Why didn’t these people leave? Well, like I said they were trapped. The military and police blocked the bridges and did NOT allow them out of New Orleans. Unless, in many cases, you were white. I’ll not even address the absurdity of ‘looting’ other than to say that this was sparse and in almost all cases was out of necessity for survival.

The first time I visited to New Orleans was in 1984. I was 9 years old and my family and I were there for the World’s Fair. I fell in love with the city and the great state of Louisiana. The culture, the music, the people, the spirit of the city…words can’t describe it. My wife and I, before we were married would again visit New Orleans to enjoy the great food and incredible music. In 1999 we were married in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Some day, I would like to live in the New Orleans of my memory. However, I fear the New Orleans of my memory is gone. Of course, neither the author of this email, nor those who resend it have any idea what I’m talking about.

The world does not ‘owe you a living,’ but we are Americans, we are citizens of the greatest and richest country in the world, more importantly we are human beings and we do owe our fellow man a little decency. The fact that these people’s tax dollars fund FEMA and our federal government just as much, if not more (in sheer numbers), than those in North Dakota who receive federal assistance when the Red River floods aside, let’s show them a little human decency and care for their lives and well being.

“In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world’s social problems evaporate.” Well, this person clearly hasn’t traveled far from their “small town in western North Dakota.” I have, and I know better. The social problems found in the north are the same as those in the south. I don’t care if THIS gets passed along. Whether someone gets the message or not, I don’t care. It’s not my purpose to ‘teach’ others my perspective about how I or they or we are better than someone else because we live in some place rather than another or because we have a different color skin. On a final note, it’s pretty clear to me that this has some pretty racist overtones.

No, I did not enjoy this.

~ Aaron