Rubber necking

Reflections on disaster: summer stories

Disaster Porn?

Perhaps aging causes one to be a bit too sensitive, but boy, the scary events of this past summer have made me wonder about the state of my fellow humans.   Maybe it is just the state of my own uncertain self but I saw some stuff that has made me wonder if we are losing a bit of our humanity as well as just hating each other.

It started with a tornado…as summers do.

Two of my granddaughters were home alone with the horses when the Carstairs F4 tornado missed their home by a slim margin.  However, it did not miss their close friends, huddled in their basement as the tornado moving at 200 kmph ripped their life apart.  

My granddaughters immediately went over there to take the kids and horses back to their own place.  Soon neighbours, first responders and others, including ourselves, stepped in to help.  This is in full keeping with how we expect human beings to react and be in times of trouble.

Right?

But then, other human beings started showing up.  Down the country road they came, the looky lookers with their cellphones drawn, hoping to be the first to post the destruction on Facebook.  And then came the final victory lap of the digital rubbernecker.  The drones came buzzing in to video the kids, the tears and the grief, from above.

Rubberneckers…

When we were kids, the cars stopping to look at an accident or fire were considered quite benign.  Damn rubberneckers, my old man used to say, without the ‘damn’ of course as we were a Pentecostal family and nothing was worth challenging the lake of fire.  So, I have been taken aback trying to understand that today’s rubberneckers now more actively seek out, rather than come upon, the carnage of today.  With this new technology they can actually make personal films of the misery…I suppose films that they can now privately watch, perhaps even share with others.

Disaster porn?  Seems a bit harsh but wait, there’s more…

Disaster Apathy?

A west coast family member was having a coffee with a friend when they heard the brakes scream and the sickening sound of a crash.  They ran through the brush to the road where they found a dead motorcyclist and a damaged car driven by a young woman.  They respectfully dealt with the deceased rider but were struggling with the girl, who never once mentioned or showed any remorse or empathy for the cyclist.  She just went on and on about how angry her father was going to be over the damage to the car.  Not once did she even acknowledge the rider.  Her father soon arrived and sure enough, he railed about the damage to the car.  Then he began taking his own photo montage (Facebook?) and never once did he mention the dead rider.

Disaster apathy? Seems a bit harsh but…there was more.

Disaster Opportunity?

Some years ago, I had the good fortune to meet an indigenous elder from Maui named Kimokeo. We got to hang with him a lot during the week we were there and it became a learning time as well as a break.  A highlight was the day he invited us to join a beach memorial for a community member who had passed away.  One afternoon, we visited Lahaina where we, like so many, made the acquaintance of that ancient banyan tree.  We visited the museum with an exhibit honoring Kimokeo’s filmed epic canoe journey through the islands.

Of course, I bought the t-shirt.

I have been wearing that Lahaina t-shirt for a number of years now in the pottery studio.  I did not realize it at first but I was wearing that shirt the day the news came in that Lahaina was burning.  I sent a note to Kimokeo realizing how critical his role as Maui’s elder, will be. I know those folks will get through this disaster, but he will be serving and leading, in the lee of that firestorm for the rest of his life. 

Of course, the citizens and the first responders were right there and our worldview of the basic human response showed up.

But they were not the only ones who showed up…

I have never seen the real estate world as heroic, but to hear of them circling like vultures on the grieved, offering to lowball their property for pennies on the dollar, made me a little irate.

Disaster driven free markets perhaps?

So, Dad, perhaps it’s just as well you passed away in time to miss the new world of rubbernecking in the new century.  And I feel quite it would be quite proper should you choose the swear word.

And a final little story…there’s more to this summer’s stories.

Disaster cults?

We still have a small group of humans who continue to gather on a favourite neighbourhood street corner every Thursday night, yelling at passers-by about masks and their loss of freedumb.  They claim to be for the family values but they seem to enjoy imagining carnal relations with politicians by virtue of their favorite bumper stickers and signs.

So, I guess I should not have been surprised when they showed up as this summer’s wildfire disasters threatened our northern cities.  The public safety people, in an effort to protect their firefighting chances and their firefighters, stopped people from travelling north for any reason.

The freedumb people heard the call and actually tried to run the barriers and carry the flag, to the flag’s embarrassment, into the flames.  In one instance the first responders threatened to leave for fear of their safety, not from fire, but from freedumb.

It is such a victory when we see the best in human behaviour showing up in disasters.  But it kind of creeps me out to see disasters being used for prurience, profit and politics.

Just another story from the ordinary.