Another heart-rending first hand account from someone trapped in New Orleans. It's a video clip of a New Orleans musician talking about her experiences. Don't watch it at work without first closing your door; it may bring you to tears.
Can you be more specific about what you disbelieve?
I've seen enough such stories that while some particulars may be wrong, there are enough commanalities to make me believe that a great many things went very, very, wrong in New Orleans.
Indeed, I'm not disputing that some bad things happened to her and many others. But there is just something about it that seems very embellished, if you will.
Perhaps, although having not interacted directly with people who've seen a lot of grief and trauma, I'm not sure on how much of what might sound weird is due to the strong emotions (and perhaps because she's told the story many times as part of the processing), and how much is due to embellishment. Enough of it seems to line up with other things I've read that I believe the general arc of the story.
Ok. It kind of sounded like it. I definitely think too many horrible things happened, too many things went wrong. I wasn't speaking as a "pollyana" or any such thing.
Yeah, I saw a slide show earlier today of someone who documented most of the New Orleans events by camera. It's interesting to see how optimistic he was on day 2. But the really amusing part, to me, was his comment about attempting to hotwire cars and failing. I thought about that, and thought about how much trouble I'd have in that situation -- heck, I'd be afraid to *try* to hotwire a car, for fear I'd somehow hurt myself!
I've seen refugees. I've worked with them. Her story seems to be accurate in sturcture if not detail.
Truth: lack of help, shooting, rape, people trapped Embellishment: number of people trapped, exactly who is not being helped (I've spoken to some 8th ward people at the local shelter, and there were a few opportunities to get out,) amount of rape (though any is bad,) severity of lack of food. Lack of food is a non issue without a complicating problem like being diabetic. Lack of water is serious, but food almost everyone can do without.
I was wondering a couple of days ago how much of the problem was complicated by the fact that I think a lot of people don't understand that water is critical and food is not. I saw a picture with a bunch of trash on the ground, among which included a half-full gatorade bottle. I was astonished and wanted to say, "Don't you know what you're wasting there!? That's what you need to *live*!" And heck, it even has calories as a bonus.
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I've seen enough such stories that while some particulars may be wrong, there are enough commanalities to make me believe that a great many things went very, very, wrong in New Orleans.
Cheers,
Jonobie
Unlike the other poster, I think it's authentic. This seems pretty typical, actually. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp
That's an amusing twist. So that's how he learned the mechanics of turning cars on without keys. :) Clearly, this was his calling...
Yeah, I saw a
slide show earlier today of someone who documented most of the New Orleans events by camera. It's interesting to see how optimistic he was on day 2. But the really amusing part, to me, was his comment about attempting to hotwire cars and failing. I thought about that, and thought about how much trouble I'd have in that situation -- heck, I'd be afraid to *try* to hotwire a car, for fear I'd somehow hurt myself!
Truth: lack of help, shooting, rape, people trapped
Embellishment: number of people trapped, exactly who is not being helped (I've spoken to some 8th ward people at the local shelter, and there were a few opportunities to get out,) amount of rape (though any is bad,) severity of lack of food. Lack of food is a non issue without a complicating problem like being diabetic. Lack of water is serious, but food almost everyone can do without.