John Just Wants To Go Home For Christmas

Here in Texas, the Brazosport paper is considered second only to the Weekly World News in reliability.

Real or imagined, when it all comes down to it, ALL the sob stories drummed up in the name of charity are a crock o' shit. I have NO sympathy for New Orleans residents who "lost" everything. They were given plenty of warning to pack their belongings and get out. Most chose not to heed the warning, and instead stuck it out till it was too late, some even throwing Hurricane Parties. Now the government gets blamed for slow response, and you and I are expected to pick up the ticket for their stupidity. Those people chose to live down there. They knew the weather, for the area. I can tell you this, living here in Missouri, if a small tornado touched down and wiped out just ONE families home, it would not make the worlds news. A families life is still devestated, but they'd pretty much be forced to face the devestation by themselves, no charity would save the day for them. I know, my brother was living in Gun Barrel, Texas. A tornado came across the lake, took the roof off the house across the street, leveled his house and then was gone. That was ALL the damage done by this twister. He was forced to face all the paperwork and recovery himself just to get his house back. No charity came to his rescue, no sob story in the paper, no blame to the government for slow response, gas prices didn't shoot throught the roof to help balance the loss to the local economy. Life went on, and so will the lives of those who survived Katrina - including those who were living in New York, Chicago, Joplin, Denver, etc. when Katrina hit - as we were all devestated in one way or another by this hurricane. For those of you who think your local economy wasn't effected by this hurricane in one way or another ought to do your home work and find out. You may be surprised to find out truth...

Christopher, I agree with you to a point, but a huge number of people in New Orleans (and area) had no cars, yet the evacuation plans pretty much read "tell people to drive out of town." It's hardly a wonder they didn't leave; they didn't have the means.

As for the sob stories, and the case listed here, why in the world does someone need to make up a story? There are more than enough sad cases that can be documented easily!

Wasn't this an episode of WKRP?

Even if they did evacuate, it still doesn't change the fact their houses are going to be destroyed and they might not have enough money to buy a new one or have anyone else to stay with.

I think you're oversimplifying things a bit to make your point.

I need the scientifics on this... what is it as human beings makes us give in to unfourtunate stories? Sure we've got sympathy but why does this trigger it? And if unaffected are we cold hearted? Brain leaking chemicals here we come...

Christopher, I don't know how many displaced Louisianans and Mississippians you're hosting there in Missouri, but here in Texas our shelters and motels are still full of people who DID pack up and leave when the hurricane was about to smack them (and then endured a 3-day-long traffic jam, since the roads weren't built to handle everybody driving in the same direction at the same time). Unfortunately, they couldn't pack up their houses, their jobs, and their support systems, all of which were pretty much wiped off the face of the earth. If you don't think this calls for some sympathy and effort to help them (as your brother's case does too, of course), I wonder what planet you're from.