ONE Warning

They'll Never Learn

We have ONE more hurricane headed toward the Gulf coast today with landfall likely tomorrow.And just like every time before politicians are are having to warn citizens and residents that wind, water, and lightning kill and destroy.  I'm all for allowing people a choice in what they do, and I'm all for encouraging people to provide relief and rescue for victims of disaster. But in every hurricane it seems we have a few people who can't or won't take heed and evacuate from endangered territory.  And so we will again have people risking lives to save those who wouldn't temporarily leave even when there were early warnings and multiple opportunities. Then we'll also have people sacrificing part of their wages or savings to help rebuild not only those who couldn't help themselves, but also those that could have.

Every time this happens I wonder how much smaller the damage could be if more people just listened to the warnings and did what even a reasonably careful person would do.

Neither Will We

But I guess, once again, large numbers of people will do the unreasonable thing again.  We will reach in our pockets and make another donation to another Hurricane Fill-in-the-Blank Fund. 

Because, after all, none of us are always reasonable.  We know that there will be some people who were there the last time a hurricane struck. And some of them are going to have the same needs they had the last time.  And they'll rebuild and be there the next time.  And so will we.  Because when it gets right down to it, we just can't help it.  They're still our neighbors and we'll still care next time, and the time after.

Good Luck Florida

So tonight and tomorrow I will think about Florida.  And I'll hope they're alright. Again.