Apparently I'm not a nice person.

This post may seem unkind, uncaring, or even mean. It may even seem gosh darn un-american. But at least it's honest. Sometimes, that's all I've got going for me.

Hurricane Katrina, to me, was the most despicable display of human apathy I have ever seen. I remember watching the news that day, wanting to jump in my car and drive down there. I went online and made a donation to the Red Cross that morning at work. At lunch, I asked everyone I worked with to do the same. Each person's response was the same, "I didn't budget for that this month." What the fuck? Since when does a budget rule over moral obligation? Did these people budget for a flooded home? Donate food you're not going to eat, donate time, do something. I couldn't believe it.

Then I recalled September 11th. I was in Mississippi at the time, attending the worst school in the nation, located in the armpit of the south. (Maybe I'm exaggerating.) Anyway, I watched the towers smoke. To be honest I didn't feel a thing. I'd never been to New York, and didn't know anyone who lived there. But I watched with the rest of the world, wondering how someone could have done this. Later, I went to my government class. I had been watching the news all morning, and considered myself as informed as the next person. At this time, the news anchors had not announced who was responsible (apparently it was Saddam Hussein, haven't you heard), so everything was speculation. In my class, I was surrounded by redneck assholes (picture a room full of Larry the cable guys) who 'hollered' that we were going to go in there and get the guy that did it. Trying to be the voice of reason, I spoke up and said, "Shouldn't we use our resources in a meaningful manner, instead of acting out of anger?" Well, you should have heard the shit I got for that. A word to the wise: in a room full of country bumpkins, don't spout off your hippie, peace-loving ideas. Anyway, for me today, the only significance September 11th holds is that in 2003, that is the day my Grandma died.

Of course I'm sad for the people who lost their lives in these tragedies and their families, but the actions of the living are what really concern me.