[lit-ideas] Re: Katrina
- From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 23:25:44 EDT
In a message dated 9/2/2005 10:18:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
People rely on technology
and
> can't cope. 2 feet of shit in the stair well? They can't even improvise
how
> to flush a toilet without pushing the button. That's pathetic. Flush
> toilets are very, very simple, gravity governed mechanisms.
Dear Paul,
People are NOT born with knowing how mechanical things work. Many of us were
not born into families of engineers and technology buffs--we need to take
classes and maybe over and over again <g> in order to learn stuff that is hard
for us.
My library system was trying to find for ages someone to teach a basic
plumbing class. We couldn't find anyone who would (and we would pay...) We
had SO
many requests for this--most people have to be taught and there are no
places around here to learn it. (at least here--maybe in Canada it is
different
and you all are born knowing that sort of stuff)
I do hear the same sentiment ALOT in regards to people who do not know how
to read--'it's their own fault'. Sometimes people do not learn easily--or
develop and comprehend more slowly and then by the time the brain is developed
enough to be able to comprehend, you cannot 'catch up' to a structured class.
(and if you are going to bed hungry every night and a kid, it's hard for the
brain to develop properly anyway)
Problem-solving skills are also not something you are born with--you are
taught that.
and you would have needed all of that in order to leave.
It's pretty easy to forget that, though, when you come from an intelligent
middle or upper middle class upbringing (or you are from Canada where you are
born knowing more practical stuff...)
I simply cannot believe that the head of FEMA is not there helping to pull
out bodies...it's the least he could do and should do in order to really get a
sense of what is happening on the ground...
wishing I had been born knowing lots more than I do,
Marlena in Missouri
Other related posts:
