What did I learn this morning upon waking?

I learned that like always we see the world from our own little perch in the world. Perspective. Ethnocentricity

Excellent article on Miami and Katrina someone sent me this morning.

I'll post the article later... later today....

Pespective... we always see our own.

They were talking on the news today about 911. Fox, CNN.. they are all the same minus a little political poetry..

They said..People four years ago were waking up to learn of the 911 terror attack and the destruction of the World Trade Center Buildings.. and I'm thinking... "how were they waking up?" And, then I thought..well people sleep late..

And, then I realized...feeling foolish... on the West Coast people woke up and learned of 911. If you woke up at 7am on the West Coast... you would be in shock.

But, for those of us on the East Coast.. it was the daytime.. morning.. getting ready to leave for work. Wandering around work, watching the news on the television in the Lunchroom in a silent building .. silent except for the scene being played out on TV.

I left the lunch room a few minutes.. checked on the children's room in the library.. no kids, no people.. came back and wondered why there was so much dust over Manhatten... then they replayed the building falling down. More silence except for muffled sounds of half-spoken words "oh my God" "oh God" "oh no" No complete sentences, only phrases and sounds of prayer and shock and silence...

We see the world from our own place on the perch of a tree.. like a bird singing and watching the sunrise and set.. we forget.. others are far away on a different time scheme, with a different plan.. looking at the world through their eyes.

911 was at 911 to me.. for someone just waking up in L.A., half asleep and forcing themself to wake up, watching the news it was 611... they wanted more information.. they wanted coffee and to go back to bed and wake up again.

If their alarm was set for 7:00... they woke up in shock.

I woke up in shock once in LA. After a late night up with the baby I woke up and heard them say on the news... local news on Good Morning America tha the Chabad House in Westwood had burned down, 3 dead... My husband then was on his way to work.. probably heard it on the radio. No cell phone, no text message... I woke up and heard Chabad House had burned down. Westwood. First place he drove me to on our "honeymoon" to L.A. for Sheva Brochos. That and the beach at Santa Monica. I knew people who worked there, lived there... I was in shock.
Imagine that was how people waking up at 8am in LA felt on 911.

All a matter of perspective.

3 dead, 3 safer torahs.. a cohen, a levi and a yisroel3 different stories, most got outthe building gone ...no longer there on that bluff that sits on Gayley overlooking the athletic field.
Phone rang, my husband was on the phone. Asked me if I saw the news, was I okay? Seemed unbelieveable. How can anyone be okay when something unbelievable happens?
911.. Katrina... Andrew... Oklahoma City..A Tsunami so far away..

It is all a matter of perspective.

Now days.. the world is so close.. so connected, communication links us all in a web of immediacy.

Katrina hit Gulfport and the Biloxi area.. with a tidal wave of epic proportions for America... a storm surge that wiped away a coastline like an eraser erasing away what looked strong but wasn't... wasn't strong enough to withstand the power of water, washing over it.. 25, 27.. 29? feet high, wind upon the waves on top of those high, high waves..

Cat 5.. Cat 4.. Cat 3... Cat 2... Cat 1.... Hurricane Pain....

New Orleans... has little damage in comparison. When you watch the pictures you realize the houses are mostly intact on top.. what part you can see. Electric poles are up in most places... not that much damage from the wind but the water covers it all... As the water recedes.. you see the wood covering the windows is there... the trees are there... water damage not all that far from Gulfport and Biloxi that took the brunt of the storm.

Katrina when she was young.. hit Miami as a Hurricane. An extremely strong category one that was said to be "seeded" with a high amount of strong storm cells. Means..instead of a few patches of hurricane force wind there was one solid band of hurricane force winds and strong cells with gusts way higher than the actual hurricane force wind speed. Gusts.. long gusts, repeatedly hitting areas with 85 and 90 and 93mph winds..

A lot of damage. Tons of damage.. compared to most mild-mannered category one storms.
In any given year... Miami would receive FEMA funds.. loans.... money.

Not this year.

They say it is because the damage on the Gulf Coast eclipsed our damage and funds are short.
People point out last year money flowed from storm to storm in an election year and money was found.

People point out because FEMA screwed up and paid out some claims they shouldn't have in Miami Dade last year the good people who are hurt this time..won't get. The sins of their fathers.. I suppose at work?

Put yourself in someone's shoes.

Pretend you are a hard working family.. trying desperately to survive. Living from paycheck to paycheck. Working 35 or 38 hours a week without benefits like so many of today's part time working class that is really full time but deprived of benefits. Trying to save money for school supplies and to fix some little thing in your house you don't have money for.. driving a car in Miami with the AC broken because you can't afford to fix it. Working a second job or you run a business out of your house like many. Maybe it's some multi-level-marketing business..with paper work and stock waiting to be sold. Maybe it's AVON. Maybe... you have a trade and do work for others... in a converted garage...you fix things, you make things... you have supplies you have gathered and paid for from hard earned money.

The home you live in is not in a flood zone but in one of those nice little "Lakes communities" off the main roads.. far out down south where you get a little more house for your money. Suddenly your house is flooded with 2 feet of water... whatever you didn't get up off the floor and onto a table or bed is soaked. The computer tower with all your business and life information is gone. The cute tree you have outside to provide shade has crashed onto your small little car without AC and smashed the wind shield, left a massive dent on the roof and the car is... flooded. The roof is leaking, the cheap poor construction that is the norm is showing signs of damage... the wallls no longer look hard and solid but the walls of the closed in garage is puckering, peeling... paint is making small bubbles where the water came in... the walls itself are showing damage from the 2 feet of water... your supplies, paper work... goods you were going to sell and make a few extra pennies for Christmas or your children's needs is laying, rotting in water... water damage everywhere, your electricity is off in "feels like 102 degree weather" and you have no electricity to charge your cell phone and you can't go out to the car and charge it because... the car is flooded and not working. A big fancy, ford truck is cruising through the neighborhood sightseeing from another area and creating a wake wave to go washing its way towards your house, living room and things bob about a bit.

Kids are home. Your job is closed... you dont know if they will give you any money for lost days.

You don't know how you will replace what you have. You don't know what to do first. You don't know who to call first..which insurance company.

You realize that you were hit by a hurricane not the distant fringes of Tropical Storm Katrina that wasn't hitting Ft. Lauderdale or Palm Beach but on her way down to the Keys where she hit Key West with the 4th highest rainfall totals since they have been keeping weather records in Key West (which was a long time ago) and..
you figure .. well there will be money to rebuild.. loans to apply for..

Surely... you got hit by a hurricane...

Not this year Jose, not this year Marilyn, not this year Lakeesha... this year Miami is on it's own because it's not an election year, because last year FEMA got in trouble for giving out money they shouldn't have to people who didn't really need..because everyone is watching the news on New Orleans and your pain is not that hard a burden for you to carry... You don't have a right to feel sad because you have a home which smells and stinks of mold and you will have a job in a week, you will also have to go buy medication for your asthmatic child and you don't have medical insurarnce or flood insurance because as an old friend said to me the other day

FOOD OR INSURANCE??

You lost the food in the fridge, you lost your car, you lost your paper work, computer, books and anything on the floor when the water poured in and you lost your faith in the Government to help you.

You go back to work, you are drained, you tell the lady at Publix, the single working mother checking you out to give a dollar, five dollars or ten to the Red Cross for victims of Katrina far away. You say a prayer she hit you as a Category 1...

It is all a matter of perspective... don't let anyone tell you that you didn't get hit by a hurricane. And, write your local state representative or federal one because you got hit by a hurricane and in any other given year, especially an election one.. you would have the money that you need to replace what you lost... to put your life back together.

Yes, I feel for NOLA and I feel for all the small towns along Highway 90.

I lost money myself... spent a few hundred preparing the house for a storm and in case we lost electric and in case the kids were home ...which my kids ate their way through as they were home 3 school days..from Thursday through Monday. I lost hours at work and my employer paid me for the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday lost..so I am only out pay for Thursday and Friday.. only.. but thankfully they gave us some money. I didn't lose any trees.. my neighbors did.

A sweet, old lady who is very poor and white.. white, poor.. my grandma probably would have called her "poor, white trash" but she's not trashy, she is just old and poor and weak .. living in a poor area of town and she comes to the library every other day or so...reads, takes advantage of the AC and goes online for thirty minutes. She went without electric from Hurricane Katrina for ONE WEEK... actually 8 days.. EIGHT DAYS... bought cheap burgers at McDonalds, ate canned food, lived without AC and electricity and a tree broke one of her windows as it fell nearby.. she doesn't have a car, she takes the bus... tell that lady who was waiting patiently for electric because she said she was told by alot of people.. and agrees..she has no right to complain because Katrina was worse elsewhere.

They are wrong. She has a right to give thanks she has a home without electric and she has a right to give thanks Katrina hit us as a One.. and she has a right to be tired, upset, frustrated a little.. because she got hit by a hurricane.. and lights were on in parts of NOLA before they were in her house. Odd, but true. And, she is the type to give a dollar to the Redcross.

If you lost someone in 911.. you can only see your immediate pain. Your mother died, your brother died, the girl you were best friends with since the 6th grade. If you lost someone in the Twin Towers.. you probably don't remember much about the poor souls who were on planes destined for disaster and being smashed into smithereens... vaporized .. being used as weapons of mass destruction .. souls trapped in planes about to be smashed into the Twin Towers..

Who were the people on the planes? People like you and me.. off to see their sister, their business appointment, their September vacation. Red Sox fans from Boston going to see their friends or business clients in LA.

People like you and me ..shanghaied... stolen away from some one's life that loved them.

There is so much to cry for today..

There is so much to give thanks for...

We cry tears today.. but what we cry from our own perspective for things we have lost and what brings tears to our eyes.

You my cry for one thing.. I may cry for something else.

Is my pain worse than yours?

Is your pain worse than mine?

Does it matter what I cry for today?

Will you condemn me for what I cry for because it is not what you are crying for?

Or are you crying for the same thing..

Whose perch do you sit on little blue bird of happiness, crying for your pain, my pain, someone else's pain or just sing a song like a nightingale... sing a song...


Raindrops
Dee Clark________
Oh raindrops so many raindrops
It feels like raindrops falling from my eye, eyes
Falling from my eyes
Since my love has left me
I'm so all alone
I would bring her back to me
But I don't know where she's gone
I don't know where she's gone
It must be a cloud in my head
Rain keeps falling from my eye, eyes
Oh no it can't be tears
For a man ain't supposed to cry
So it must be raindrops so many raindrops
It feels like raindrops falling from my eye, eyes
Falling from my eyes
It must be a cloud in my head
Rain keeps falling from my eye, eyes
Oh no it can't be tears
For a man ain't supposed to cry
So it must be raindrops so many raindrops
It feels like raindrops falling from my eye, eyes
Falling from my eyes
It keeps falling, falling from my eyes
Woo-oo-oo it keeps falling from my eyes
.................................

will post the article about miami being deprived of the money on another post... too many teardrops..falling from my eyes