long term shelter

[Adam Scriven]

RoConroy at aol.com wrote:
>       Don't get me wrong, I am not overly concerned about the adults, but the 
> problems with the children is another matter.  If you notice, disaster areas, 
> such as Sri Lanka, and North West Pakistan, seem to be radical Muslim 
> strongholds.  I am not too concerned about there being a few less gun toting radicals 
> out there, but it would be nice if the children could be helped.  Keep in 
> mind that the worst hit of Katrina was New Orleans, a city and state with a long 
> record of corruption, which seemed to live off high priced beer, sold by the 
> drink, bare breasted women, prostitution, and a livelyhood of living of the 
> dead, by parading up and down in the streets in honor of the dying.  

Wow, that's a nasty paragraph!  Not being concerned about the lives of 
other human beings, merely because they happen to live in "radical 
Muslim strongholds" or "have a record of corruption"...

"Don't get me wrong..." is a poor way to start a racist statement like that.

If we keep marginalising people merely because they live in a place 
where people do or believe things we don't like (and us being completely 
ignorant as to the actual thoughts and deeds of the actual victims), 
then we are no better than the facists of our past.

Your problems with New Orleans, high priced beer, bare-breasted women, 
prostitution, are all moral problems that are YOUR problems, and to 
condem people because they believe something different is disgusting.  I 
personally have no problem with high-priced beer (I don't drink beer 
enough to give a shit), bare-breasted women (They are body parts and in 
MY NSHO it's our prudish, puritanical victorian-ness that's causing all 
the problems, not the breasts themselves [/me points to Janet Jackson 
and the stupid uproar as proof of this]), and prostitution (the oldest 
profession, will be around far longer than any of us, and society would 
be better off acknowledging it and dealing with it, not prohibiting [and 
so giving to black markets and criminals] this rather popular pasttime).

Yes, some of the people in those jurisdictions don't believe the same 
things you do, but by not sending the help you would if they were your 
"own brothers" you are further dividing and increasing those 
differences, not helping to fix or understand them.  It's, IMNSHO, plain 
and simple closed-minded ignorance.

To use the Christian phrasing, "Turn the other cheek", "Love thy 
neighbour", the Golden Rule...

Not that this has much to do with domesteading at this point, so I'll 
quit the rant and see what happens.
Adam