After deciding to relax, do some art, read the papers and finish a great book I picked up yesterday, I turned on the idiot box.
After watching the Japanese station (with honey translating it for me), the events in Japan really struck a chord. Luckily, despite little communications with Japan, we learned that her entire family is safe and sound. That one email made it much easier for us to cope.
But 10,000 dead? Thousands missing? A huge explosion at one nuke plant, and another threatening to follow suit?
Yikes.
In many ways, the Japanese are brilliant. Their scrapers of sky have built in defenses, and withstood a 9.0 shaking. That's incredible. That's what you get for planning ahead, and using regulations for the public good. That is how government serves and protects its people. (hint, hint)
If that kind of quake happened to the nearby New Madrid fault in Illinois, I doubt that we could say the same thing. Chicago has some earthquake standards, but not in the same league as Tokyo.
Unfortunately, the shaking came with another "gift." A wall of water so powerful that thousands of homes were wiped out in minutes. This wall traveled up to six miles inland, laying waste to everything and everyone in its path. Tsunamis are incredibly destructive, and the only human defense is not to build where one will hit. (To see how ineffably stupid humans can be, check out the protests along the flood zones of the Mississippi River, people complaining that the new regulations are too tough, and not cost effective. And wait til spring really gets going this year. Again.)
Entire Japanese industries have shut down, the military has mobilized, and more than 30 countries have boots on the ground and choppers in the air trying to find survivors. By now, most heard of that 60 yr old, floating on top of his roof, 15 km offshore. One ray of sunshine in a clusterfuck so destructive that it is hard to grasp just how much damage was done.
The real horror remains. Aftershocks, additional tsunamis, and the great likelihood that hundreds, even thousands are trapped in rubble, unable to communicate their presence, dying a slow death without food or water.
The blow to Japan is unfathomable. My heart and my tears (and my wallet) go out to them all.
It used to be said that all politics is local. Now that multinationals seem to control entire governments, including our own, I am not so sure that statement is still true. More a truism, rather than a fact.
What we here in America have is an opportunity. Two, actually.
1) Show, again, the world of what we are made of. Provide blood, water, helicopters and food to those in such a desperate need. With two aircraft carriers devoted to rescue missions (including the purification of millions of gallons of drinking water) we have a good start. It is far better than torture in Iraq, or indiscriminate killings of innocent Afghani children, just because their parents may not like invaders on their land.
However, you and I can, strike that, Should do more. Go to the local red cross, and donate blood. Send money to the international red cross. Use existing international organizations, and avoid scam artists capitalizing on Japan tremendous needs and pain. Do it. Do it now.
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2) One thing that every president learns (with the possible exception of W), is that there is no off time. Every issue, be it local, national, or international, will be politicized, every issue will become a Bloatway tennis ball. That applies to Haiti, to Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Iran, and now, front and center, to Japan. It applies to Wisconsin, just as much as it applies to new nuclear power plants.
Our president should use this event and push agendas that take into account the horror being experienced in Japan.
If you didn't know, the Republicans currently infesting the House of Representatives, tried to cut all emergency funding, to effectively castrate FEMA and other programs that would limit the damage when events like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or terrorism hit us again. It is never a matter of "if", but "when." There will be storms. There will be quakes. There will be deaths. We must prepare. Unless you are a Republican. They seem to skip over this part of the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Promote the General Welfare. That's socialism and communism to the TeaBuggers. Today's GOP simply ignores that part of our constitution.
So, what can we do? What do we need to hear from the DC Bloatway, and from the President in particular?
Energy independence, renewable sources, preparation for massive power outages, and upgrading our infrastructure - we should be hearing about great new plans, about huge investments, because we cannot afford not to do them.
Yet, I suspect all we will hear from DC is that the President is looking at new places to cut the budget, in order to find common ground with the GOP. Precisely the wrong step, at the wrong time, in the wrong way. Again.
I am still amazed how easily this president was hoodwinked by Koch & Co. First, they demand (and receive from Obama) tax cuts that blow our budget sky high. Then, because our budget was blown sky high, they demand budget cuts that will destroy the middle class, our infrastructure, even our future.
The only thing that could make me feel worse is if the president was not hoodwinked, but a willing, eager participant in that Texas Two Step we suffered. Tax cuts for the rich, and budget cuts for the rest of us.
Disgusting.
I don't mean to seem opportunistic about what is happening to Japan. To the contrary, Japan offers a huge lesson for us. It is a warning that we must heed, an example that we must learn from. Japan planned ahead, made extremely stringent building codes, and because of their heavy handed regulations, a disaster was limited in scope. Imagine if they did not have those building codes in force.
Yet, all we will hear from Washington will be what other cuts Obama will agree to.
Did I say disgusting?