Shelter from the Storm, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

October 7, 2016 Victor El-Khouri 1 Comment

The news is all Hurricane Matthew, all the time.  And I get it.  When 150-mile-per-hour winds are threatening people’s homes, that’s newsworthy.  At the same time, when I watch the story on the cable news networks (I have no life), I think about the details perhaps more than I should.

A hurricane is a natural disaster, and whatever political thoughts it might inspire in a person are most likely the result of that person’s pre-existing biases and values.  Obviously, I am no exception.

When I see a natural disaster as horrific as Matthew, I am grateful to live in a country with government services.  We have a weather service that can track and (sometimes) predict a storm pattern.  We have police and emergency services to coordinate plans for support and evacuation.  We have communication systems that permit officials in different jurisdictions to make plans.

This can include jurisdictions in other countries.  It is a blessing to be able to help people in trouble, no matter who they are, no matter where they are.  To share our resources with our fellow humans is, to me, a large part of what it means to be American.

Not everyone agrees.  To quote from the link: “They do not understand why we don’t first ask, ‘If we come to your aid, will you pay us back?’ They do not get it—how soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines can willingly put their heads down and plow forward, into the very real maelstrom of a Category 4 Hurricane, without an assurance of financial reward for the nation. Those who think like this, these types who only know bottom lines, depreciation, and remuneration, expect business rules to take precedence over the rules of common humanity.”

Which brings me to another thought…

Every place a person chooses to live has advantages and disadvantages.  I live in a large, expensive city, and I sacrifice a lot of privacy and natural beauty to live here.  Because I choose to live here, I have a much smaller home than I might have for the same money in another area.  I’m okay with that, because I like the culture, the buzz, the mass transit and the variety of my neighbors.

These are not things that everyone values to the same extent.  A lot of people sacrifice things I might like in order to live near the ocean.

I get it.  I love to fall asleep listening to the waves breaking on the shore.  I love to walk along the beach and look for shells.  For me, personally, these things are not worth the anxiety I would feel living in a place under a constant threat of hurricanes.

Okay, we’ve established that different people like different things.  Stop the presses.

One of the things many people don’t like about where I live is that the taxes are high.  They don’t want to pay taxes for services they don’t need but other people might use.  I understand but don’t share this feeling.  To me, living here has a cost, but I doubt my city taxes are more than I would pay in yearly fees to a neighborhood association or gated community.  And I’m happier knowing my neighbors can go to school and get to work.

I think Big Government can be a good thing.

If you don’t, that’s fine.  I can understand and respect your point of view.  What I can’t understand is how quickly some people who say they don’t like government can turn around and complain when they refuse its services.

All week, I’ve listened to officials in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina tell citizens who live on the coast to evacuate their homes.  Governor Rick Scott (not my favorite person) even said that people who stayed behind would die.  Gas stations and other retail establishments closed.

Yet still some people stayed.

That’s a choice, and it’s their choice.  As I write this, I don’t know if any of the people who stayed died from the storm.  I hope not.

Here’s the thing.  A lot of time, when people choose to live in wealthy beach communities, they vote against representatives who might raise their taxes.  They don’t want to pay for expensive insurance policies.  And then, when they suffer property damage (or, even worse, physical damage), they expect the government to help them.

It’s easier to talk about taking responsibility for one’s decisions when that one isn’t you.

A lot of this election cycle has been choosing who is us and who is them.  Where do we draw the lines about whom to include in our communities and who is the threat?  Are we welcoming or are we afraid?  Should we be both at the same time?

Where I live is not the only lens through which I interpret events.  I didn’t always live in New York City, but I’ve always been Jewish.  And to grow up Jewish in the 1950s was to know how precarious one’s existence can be.  This election is reminding some of us about those feelings more every day.

Again, to quote from a link:   “One of the thing Jews carry with them instinctively is the knowledge that when one group gets targeted, even one they have no particular connection to, it will almost certainly, eventually come around to them too. This is, I believe, one of the things that keeps Jews anchored on the center-left and left of the political spectrum, even as they’ve become distinct and more Republican-looking by wealth, education-levels and other demographic characteristics. “

I don’t know if you will be watching Sunday’s debate.  I don’t know if I’ll have the stomach to watch it or not.  I hope, by then, that the hurricane is no longer a threat, and we just have to worry about the hating.  Remember, when you vote, that you aren’t simply voting for a candidate (who is, as a human being, inherently flawed) but also for the kind of country in which you want to live.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess,  wishes the election were now, while the polling is still good.