advice on maintaining your sanity
Sep. 2nd, 2005 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litchI've not been paying as much attention to the katrina aftermath as a lot of people, thank the gods I have a job to keep me busy. But given my newshound tendancies I've been paying enough to feel depressed and overwhelmed.
So my advice to anyone else feeling that way:
take care of the people close to you
try to not think about the shit you can't do anything about
give money to the red cross every time you feel guilty
turn off the news
don't read the katriablogs
exercise
try to give people who are avoiding the story some space
to put that in action:
So I hear a lot of people outraged at dumbfucks shooting at rescue copters and the like, yeah it's outrageous but have some compassion and consider, you just went through a hurricane, thought things were fine and then your house & city flooded, there's no power and no a/c you're scared, haven't eaten, haven't had much water, miserable, for THREE DAYS and then you see a rescue copter taking some other motherfucker and leaving your ass alone. At least if you take a shot at them they will notice you
driving home yesterday I heard this exchange between the secretary of homeland security and the host of All Things Considered. The cold text just utterly fails to capture the dismissive denial in his voice. On some level I can admire the Bushies rejection of objective reality and attempted substitution of their own, there is an an increadible amount of power in insisting up is down, and if you can push the paradigm consistantly and powerfully enough it possible in some cases to make your vision impose itself on reality. But reality don't like it when it happens, and it a whole lot bigger and more determined than any republican political hack.
So my advice to anyone else feeling that way:
take care of the people close to you
try to not think about the shit you can't do anything about
give money to the red cross every time you feel guilty
turn off the news
don't read the katriablogs
exercise
try to give people who are avoiding the story some space
to put that in action:
So I hear a lot of people outraged at dumbfucks shooting at rescue copters and the like, yeah it's outrageous but have some compassion and consider, you just went through a hurricane, thought things were fine and then your house & city flooded, there's no power and no a/c you're scared, haven't eaten, haven't had much water, miserable, for THREE DAYS and then you see a rescue copter taking some other motherfucker and leaving your ass alone. At least if you take a shot at them they will notice you
driving home yesterday I heard this exchange between the secretary of homeland security and the host of All Things Considered. The cold text just utterly fails to capture the dismissive denial in his voice. On some level I can admire the Bushies rejection of objective reality and attempted substitution of their own, there is an an increadible amount of power in insisting up is down, and if you can push the paradigm consistantly and powerfully enough it possible in some cases to make your vision impose itself on reality. But reality don't like it when it happens, and it a whole lot bigger and more determined than any republican political hack.
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Date: 2005-09-02 03:43 pm (UTC)I have no CHOICE but to "care" as these folks r n my "backyard" and some will be my STUDENTS!
Date: 2005-09-05 10:19 pm (UTC)I guess when you, therefore, have an "up close and personal" view it's hard to "maintain one's sanity." I guess, also, as an award-winning journalist, I realized that I will ALWAYS be a "journalist" and thus it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to be passive or uninvolved in any major news story, esp. when it is in my own backyard and, also, when I have been alerted to the FACT that I may, no doubt, have some "new students" --- starting tomorrow, who hail from Xavier U., Tulane and other New Orleans based or area universities who are among the evacuees and, obviously, cannot return to school for the college education they've paid for.
I'm happy and proud to be as passionate and activist based as I am as I truly believe I'm part of the army of folks on this planet who are DETERMINED to make a difference. That's why I became a journalist, among other things. That's why I "get involved" while others sit on the sidelines. I've been on the "front lines" or scenes of plane crashes and, among other things, had to live, therefore, with the horror of looking up at a tree and thinking, "Oh, that's a doll up there. .. oh no, that's not a doll. .. that's a dead baby. . ." or stepping over a dead body of a teen & standing next to police tape chatting with cops as I take notes to find out the details on who shot the kid in the eye and why. . .
In other words, I KNOW what my purpose on this planet is all about. I think it's one of the primary reasons that I can and do write with such passion. Maybe even the only reason why I've won any number of awards as a writer, may be the only reason why I'm CONSTANTLY put in a position to care and do something about what I see to be senseless atrocities. . .
Reminds me of a poster that I had hanging up in my room (I'm the youngest of seven and my oldest siblings were, for all practical purposes, black militants while in college during the 1960s. ..), alongside the poster of Angela Davis. It was a poster showing a lot of impoverished people (of ALL races, ethnicities, etc.) and the message was/is:
IF YOU'RE NOT A PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU'RE A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
I'm grateful that that poster graced my bedroom walls. Shoot, I bet it's still there, right where I put it as a child in my old bedroom in Fort Wayne, Indiana. So happy that I learned that message at such an early age.