Who exists for you?

Tuning into MPR this morning I was bogged down with listening to talk of Hurricane Katrina revisited. But the part that concerned me was the man who called in berrating the victims for not having a self preservation instinct enough to escape.He said that he doesn’t know anyone who doesn’t have a car and wouldn’t have just left in any city he’s ever been in or knows anyone in. Who doesn’t know anyone or have never had contact with anyone in or from New Orleans? If you are so well traveled that you can make broad statements you should at least know or have bumped into someone from New Orleans.

This man obviously has a high 6 digit income and while his maid might not he surely doesn’t talk with her, being of a lesser survival instinct doubtless. A broad sweeping assumption of every single person owns a car and the means to take an endless stay in some place far away, shows he doesn’t know a lot of New Yorkers or people with menial jobs.

Making an assumption that everyone who lives in a multimillion dollar home in Minnesota would be able to pack up and hop into thier SUV and take a leisurely drive out of town on a clear wide open highway with plenty of gas and lots of rooms on the credit cars for swanky hotel rooms isn’t that hard of a jump to make.

Understanding that someone who never needed to own a car because they didn’t have to drive to college seeing as how they never went and when they got a job at the local convience store that pays enough to get by but no more doesn’t have any friends who have space in thier cars that they have put thier pets and extended family in but then never made it past a mile from thier home anyway is much more difficult.

Ever harder is grasping that someone who can afford a car and owns one, decides after looking around the community to stay behind and try to help at the hospital because they’ve got some experience.

It’s much easier to simply see what you see every single day and when you never open your eyes to see the bum on the street or the bus full of people, some saving gas money, some just barely able to afford the fare. It’s simple to not see the people who aren’t like you. I have a hard time believing that neocons actually exist, I simply don’t see them in my life. When they are there I ignore them, or at least that aspect of them. It’s easy. It keeps life clean and simple and uncomplicated. But I don’t deny they exist when they smack me in the face. Why do they ignore the salvagers when they are on tv in big bright high def?

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/08/28/midmorning2/
(As a side note on the midmorning home page Chief Harrington looks really cranky. Come on Chief, there was no unbridled anger at you that I heard. You’re doing well. Cheer up!)