A Flood of Emotion
Well, Labor Day already. The combination of a holiday weekend, people squeezing their last relocations into the summer moving season and random whatnot have conspired to create a truly awesome piece of Garbage Jenga in the dumpster across the way.
The past week proved an acceptable blend of getting things done and recuperation. I always have the nagging thoughts that I Should Have Done More, but it is getting easier to fight off those guilt attacks as I get older. I'm still working on finding motivation to feel energetic and zesty when getting out of bed tomorrow morning though.
Katrina coverage on the net has proved to be a depressing psychic drain. Most of my virtual 'haunts' are dominated by otherwise bright people who seem to lose all ability for rational thought or critical thinking once Certain People enter the picture in any way shape or form. I A) love thinking about logistical issues B) have a pretty thick skin and C) find dissecting major endeavors and figuring out what went right and what went wrong fascinating. Trying to do that in the current climate leads to being branded an "apologist" "spin-doctor" or worse.
One of the dark sides of our culture is the emphasis of style over substance. You can look good and empathetic on camera and be doing an incredibly incompetent job and be defended vociferously. You can be a buffoon on camera and things under you can be going about as well as be expected and you will be savaged. Of course, sometimes you can be a buffoon on camera and incompetent in practice. The Katrina disaster has given us examples of all three.
There is no 'victory' or 'good enough' response to a tragedy of this magnitude. All you are doing is trying not to make it worse than it absolutely has to be. Any time you are reacting to a disaster, you are going to run into three categories of failure in preventing loss of life or misery:
Failure due to impossibility
Failure due to chaos
Failure due to incompetence
Where I lose my temper is where people refuse to acknowledge the existence of the first two categories, or are so fixated on the third that due to ignorance or partisan bias want to lump everything into the last category. Of course, once it becomes about scoring political points, zealots on the other side of the fence want to push the third category out to the first two.
None of this helps the current situation, much less lends itself to reflection, analysis or improvement.
If I were to suggest one link to those who seek a better understanding on the logistics of disaster relief, or of how things work on a local/state/federal level, what the military role is, etc. this would probably be the link. Or rather the link to a collection of links Van Steenwyk can express some strong opinions, but when he says "I've been a battalion S4 in combat, an HHC XO for dozens of major moves of a hundred miles or more, and an HHC company commander for six hurricane mobilizations." I'll tend to give his opinions some serious weight.
I guess I'm just an apologist.
An apologist who has starting playing WoW again. *sob*
The past week proved an acceptable blend of getting things done and recuperation. I always have the nagging thoughts that I Should Have Done More, but it is getting easier to fight off those guilt attacks as I get older. I'm still working on finding motivation to feel energetic and zesty when getting out of bed tomorrow morning though.
Katrina coverage on the net has proved to be a depressing psychic drain. Most of my virtual 'haunts' are dominated by otherwise bright people who seem to lose all ability for rational thought or critical thinking once Certain People enter the picture in any way shape or form. I A) love thinking about logistical issues B) have a pretty thick skin and C) find dissecting major endeavors and figuring out what went right and what went wrong fascinating. Trying to do that in the current climate leads to being branded an "apologist" "spin-doctor" or worse.
One of the dark sides of our culture is the emphasis of style over substance. You can look good and empathetic on camera and be doing an incredibly incompetent job and be defended vociferously. You can be a buffoon on camera and things under you can be going about as well as be expected and you will be savaged. Of course, sometimes you can be a buffoon on camera and incompetent in practice. The Katrina disaster has given us examples of all three.
There is no 'victory' or 'good enough' response to a tragedy of this magnitude. All you are doing is trying not to make it worse than it absolutely has to be. Any time you are reacting to a disaster, you are going to run into three categories of failure in preventing loss of life or misery:
Failure due to impossibility
Failure due to chaos
Failure due to incompetence
Where I lose my temper is where people refuse to acknowledge the existence of the first two categories, or are so fixated on the third that due to ignorance or partisan bias want to lump everything into the last category. Of course, once it becomes about scoring political points, zealots on the other side of the fence want to push the third category out to the first two.
None of this helps the current situation, much less lends itself to reflection, analysis or improvement.
If I were to suggest one link to those who seek a better understanding on the logistics of disaster relief, or of how things work on a local/state/federal level, what the military role is, etc. this would probably be the link. Or rather the link to a collection of links Van Steenwyk can express some strong opinions, but when he says "I've been a battalion S4 in combat, an HHC XO for dozens of major moves of a hundred miles or more, and an HHC company commander for six hurricane mobilizations." I'll tend to give his opinions some serious weight.
I guess I'm just an apologist.
An apologist who has starting playing WoW again. *sob*