The Fire Next Time

I am sending this post from the Petaluma Public Library (great WiFi and good air-conditioning), where I just passed by a book on the shelf of new books; a book about Katrina.

The book is called "The Storm That Changed America" and while it's a nice title and all, I really don't think that it has any relevance to anything, because as far as I can tell in my year of meandering (and even in my most recent trip to the heart of the south) I don't see much CHANGE in America. Frankly, what I see all too much of is simply the same old same old... waiting for more shit to happen, more crap to run downhill. Who is going to be the next victim, who is going to be the next person hit? Just last night someone mentioned to me the, by now all too obvious news, that from now on "FEMA isn't just going to hand out $2000 checks." This person, a relatively well-educated, fairly awake and aware individual, was simply spouting the same message as everyone else; he wasn't gloating about it particularly, but he clearly wasn't outraged by the reasoning behind it either.

You see... I got one of those $2,000 checks and frankly, it meant, at the time, the difference between survival and collapse. For the most part, that is the reality of everyone I know who got one of those checks - and I know a lot of people who got them. The reasoning in the general population goes something like, "well... a whole lotta them folks wasted that money..." or, "a whole bunch o' them people were criminals who shouldn't a gotten that money in the first place..." or, "I had a problem a couple years ago and I sure as hell didn't get any o' that money..." or "well, ya know... all those folks in Louisiana, they're all a bunch a crooks anyways."

Two weeks ago in Atlanta, among an amazing crowd of caring and giving people, the questions all came up...

"If I am going to give to this cause, how do I know that my money won't be wasted when the next storm comes along?"

"Are groups joining together? Are there coalitions that we can count on to do the work that needs to be done?"

"When I hear about all the money that has been wasted... how do I know MY money is not going to be wasted?"

Here's the bottom line baby... where the rubber meets the road, as they used to say... Just GIVE... Just DO... Just CARE... The amount of money wasted, stolen, lost, or misused is so small compared to the amount of need that the questions are just painfully ludicrous in the callousness of their context. And these were questions from people who who ACTUALLY GIVE A DAMN!

The most painful thing for me in all of this (amid a whole long list of painful things) is that I am very clearly aware of the fact that I am just as much one of the guilty parties. If I had not LIVED this reality for the last year I would not be screaming about it right now... I would probably not even be very much aware of it.

But I AM AWARE OF IT... and like the Quaker adage that once you have seen the truth you bear the responsibility of DOING something about it, I bear the responsibility of both DOING something myself AS WELL AS the responsibility of making it known to those who have yet to see.

We can't live like this anymore. We can't go placidly along and pretend the world is somehow out of our control. It's OUR world... if it's out of our control it's OUR FAULT.

So... the final point here is that I... you... we... need to damn well DO SOMETHING about it damnit! And we need to do it now.

People are still dying, people are stilll starving, people are still homeless (including me), people are in need and WE have the resources (individually, collectively and societally) to HELP... NOW.

You can give... you can question... you can DEMAND that the promises made by the president, which after 10 months remain unfulfilled, ARE fulfilled.

"God gave Noah the rainbow sign, / No more water, the fire next time!"