Bear with me a bit, if you will. There’s a sharp point, at least I think so.
If you’ve never lived on the ground for a disaster like a hurricane or tornado, it’s worse than any picture or video can depict. I wept in the street, on my knees, the morning after Hurricane Ivan. It was 10AM, a cool, leafless autumn morning, but it had been summer 12-hours earlier. 10 of those hours was darkness and that nonstop goddamned freight train sound.
“My god, what happened to my new city?” Had no notion of the blast radius, all I could see was what I could see. Watched the blue fireworks of exploding transformers all night. Still didn’t hit me. Thinking I was on my own, I wept a bit when the Guard rolled in. “We’re getting help?!
What? Why? How?”
After living though Ivan, I cried my eyes out seeing what happened to my neighbors in southern Mississippi after Katrina. And then I went and saw for myself. My poor words cannot do justice.
My father-in-law, after picking up a pair of Bronze Stars in Iraq, came home and fought his way through to save those people. They sawed fucking houses in half to open the roads. This old white man was so fond of his memories, showing us pictures of the little black kids they gave salvaged Walmart bikes to. He looked like a proud papa. And then he disintegrated.
He was fine after Iraq, held it together. His Katrina PTSD led him to leave his wife of 32-years and ignore his only child, blew his family apart.
And here’s the tip of the spear:
This is an order of magnitude worse. This isn’t some blameless natural disaster. These aren’t first-world country folks, cranking up the gennies, sharing what they got with anyone in need, pulling together in the face of tragedy. This is a modern nation state purposefully and with malice aforethought conducting genocide on a weaker neighbor. National Guard ain’t rolling in for these folks. They’re truly on their own.
I took it to be them anchoring in their own experiences and trying to use those experiences as a way to help others understand even 1/10 of what the Gazans are going through. Felt like it was coming from a place of support and empathy. I can see your interpretation too, though.
Bear with me a bit, if you will. There’s a sharp point, at least I think so.
If you’ve never lived on the ground for a disaster like a hurricane or tornado, it’s worse than any picture or video can depict. I wept in the street, on my knees, the morning after Hurricane Ivan. It was 10AM, a cool, leafless autumn morning, but it had been summer 12-hours earlier. 10 of those hours was darkness and that nonstop goddamned freight train sound.
“My god, what happened to my new city?” Had no notion of the blast radius, all I could see was what I could see. Watched the blue fireworks of exploding transformers all night. Still didn’t hit me. Thinking I was on my own, I wept a bit when the Guard rolled in. “We’re getting help?! What? Why? How?”
After living though Ivan, I cried my eyes out seeing what happened to my neighbors in southern Mississippi after Katrina. And then I went and saw for myself. My poor words cannot do justice.
My father-in-law, after picking up a pair of Bronze Stars in Iraq, came home and fought his way through to save those people. They sawed fucking houses in half to open the roads. This old white man was so fond of his memories, showing us pictures of the little black kids they gave salvaged Walmart bikes to. He looked like a proud papa. And then he disintegrated.
He was fine after Iraq, held it together. His Katrina PTSD led him to leave his wife of 32-years and ignore his only child, blew his family apart.
And here’s the tip of the spear:
This is an order of magnitude worse. This isn’t some blameless natural disaster. These aren’t first-world country folks, cranking up the gennies, sharing what they got with anyone in need, pulling together in the face of tragedy. This is a modern nation state purposefully and with malice aforethought conducting genocide on a weaker neighbor. National Guard ain’t rolling in for these folks. They’re truly on their own.
Damn bro I feel that. Thanks for sharing 😔
Way to make this about you
I took it to be them anchoring in their own experiences and trying to use those experiences as a way to help others understand even 1/10 of what the Gazans are going through. Felt like it was coming from a place of support and empathy. I can see your interpretation too, though.
You’re really, really stupid if that’s what you got from it.
It’s illegal to share experiences now?
They shared theirs so you can have context on how bad the situation is on gaza. Chill on your projections bro.
The single downvote on each of the replies are you, aren’t they?