Givers and Takers

My husband sent me a posting this morning from some 'newsgroup' that I can't trace back and couldn't credit if I had to, but I'm going to share the gist of it because it was 'thought provoking.' The article referred to the incredible blizzard suffered by the northern states - the Dakota's mostly - in early December.

We drove through the aftermath of this storm on our trip. We saw the miles of power line down because the poles had simply snapped in half from the strength of the wind and the weight of the ice on the lines. There had to have been a lot of people without power in that incredibly cold place. As we drove along the highway, we saw crews working on the lines, but there wasn't much progress to make - the ground was too frozen to put new poles in and there was simply so much territory to cover.

It was a devastating storm, the likes of which hadn't been seen before, even in this extreme country. It was a 'Category 5' sort of storm, "a historic blizzard of up to 44" of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and and cut power to 10's of thousands."

The article simply pointed out that nobody blamed the government. FEMA didn't even show up. And nobody demanded that they be provided with a cruise ship or replacement home to live in. Vouchers weren't issued. Geraldo Rivera didn't come, and CNN didn't place reporters every 10 miles to interview the 'victims.' (For that matter, Pat Robertson didn't tell them they deserved it either!) No one in Hollywood held a benefit concert. The people just cranked up their wood stoves, took in neighbors and strangers, dropped everything to search for stranded travelers, took care of their livestock, kept their children close and safe, and generally solved their problems and carried on as best they could. It wasn't a matter of hours or even days to make things right again - they are still working on it.

There are 'givers' and there are 'takers' in this world. There are problem solvers and there are complainers. Which is our government fostering? Which is our education system trying to produce? Which does our media celebrate?