Human Nature at Its Finest

I don't really know at all where I want to go with this, but I would say it could easily be controversial and it's a conversation largely concerning demographics.

With the floods in Iowa, I think it's been largely noticed at the whole "neighborly" attitude that primarily exists in the Midwest. More than one night over the last few weeks, I have found myself almost in tears at the idea of losing everything and still helping out the community. I love this very thing about the Midwest - not just that when you smile at someone they will cheerfully smile back (and mean it!) - but it always seems that when disaster strikes, we're sending in the National Guard for more help - not to patrol.

With that in mind, I recently was looking at photos of people wading in waist-high water, and wondering why people couldn't have had a similar attitude during Hurricane Katrina. And you know what? I couldn't come up with a logical answer. Following Hurricane Katrina, people from all over the country gave money and time to help clean up - but what seemed overwhelmingly true was that those actually affected by the hurricane waited around for others to take care of their mess. Violence erupted, and looting ensued. Why? There's no good reason. People came up with the answer that this is what happens after a natural disaster. No, it's not!

I know that lots of people can call me a bigot or racist or something of that nature because many people are going to make the connection that lots do with Hurricane Katrina - that it involved lots of poor people who happened to be non-white. I'm not going there, at all. I'm simply trying to point out that how is it we excused all the violence that occurred in the aftermath? Tons of natural disasters (maybe not of the same scale, obviously) happen every year, and nothing results the way Hurricane Katrina did.

I don't want to explain it. I can't. I do want to recognize the amazing people out there, though, that will take a day off work to fill up sandbags. Something that really seems to really only come from the Midwest...

WTF BO?

I was reading the Des Moines Register yesterday, and low and behold, I discovered that Barack Obama canceled a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids because "it wouldn't be appropriate to campaign there at this time." You know what would appropriate? Helping out during a natural disaster.
I'm sorry, but being a PR major, I have to throw in that it wouldn't even be genius for him to have come just to help fill sandbags - it would have been elementary at best. So the fact that he decided "Oh, because I can't come and persuade you all to vote for me, I'm just going to let you keep getting on to living without drinking water and power..." It's ridiculous. And dumb, and appalling out of a presidential candidate to have canceled an appearance in a town currently ravished by a disaster. I'm sorry, but I fully expect him to roll up his sleeves.
But Rissa, why aren't you criticizing John McCain for the same thing? He didn't have an appearance there. And I know people like to put down Bush and all, but the thing I find particularly offensive about Obama's situation is that he was supposed to be there and he canceled because he couldn't sell himself.
I don't need to go on.