R.P. Barr

Waiting for an apology

I wrote the following poem shortly after 9/11/01.  I am still waiting for someone in Congress to apologize for cutting the Sky Marshal program in the 1990's and failing to improve airport security despite hearings and books and all sorts of notice.  Congressional budgetary stinginess led to the 9/11 disaster and will lead to more.

                                Responsibility

 

Every day—

I looked it up—

How many go to work,

One hundred thirty-five million.

And, every day, one or two

Fail to come back home.

 

Most often, it’s health at fault.

Accidents sometimes, and

Now and then there’s violence.

 

For a handful of family,

Friends and the like,

The grief is profound.

Swallowed by sorrow, scalded by tears,

While the rest of the world never knows.

 

And, then, one crisp September morning,

Wrapped in a sky so bravely blue,

Two tall buildings came crashing down,

A third shot through,

And a fourth escaped because

Some fought back.

 

Four planeloads perished, and

Thousands of workers that single day

Failed to come back home.

 

Some charge the reason was hate

For a country that minds its business.

Others opine the motive to have been

A heartless cry for help.

 

But, the reason was neglect.  It was.

You know hostility is as sporadic and yet

As expected as the rain.

And those elected to watch over our shelter

Were shown the holes again and again.

But, why patch the roof

When the sun shines brightly,

And the sky above is blue.

 

Besides, every day,

Millions go to work.

Only one or two

Fail to return home

And, hardly anyone notices.

 

Hurricane Irene and the Earthquake Shake

It sounds like the name of a rock band, but the week's left a lot of people both shaken and stirred.  I was fine.  Both work place and home escaped damage.  That’s not what I want to talk about.

The storm before Irene, the one that hit Florida, began in the southern Caribbean.  All of the news broadcasts I heard spoke of how that storm was poised to strike Haiti.  I heard this over and over and wondered, what about Dominican Republic?  So, I switched to the Spanish-language channels.  I only understand about 1% of what they say, but their early hurricane coverage is better than on English-language channels, and I can follow the graphics.  Interestingly, they talked about how the storm was threatening Dominican Republic, but not one word about Haiti.  The experience left me shouting at the television, “THEY’RE ON THE SAME ISLAND.  IF YOU TALK ABOUT ONE, TALK ABOUT THE OTHER.”

Then along came Irene.  I’m sure we all watched the devastation in North Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont.  Some people complained about so much coverage.  I thought the press orgy on Casey Anthony was excessive, but a hurricane--  When I am anxious about what a storm will do to me or to people I know I want to be able to turn on the set at any time, night or day, and not have to wait too long for news of its progress.  Of course, I am also aware that there is other news in the world, and it would be nice to hear a little of that sprinkled here and there.  But, what was truly interesting was that after this soggy blanket of hurricane news smothering everything for days, I heard a newscaster say, “The U.S. is no longer being threatened. The storm has moved into Canada.”  And, that was that.

Hello, there are people across that border.  I believe we call them Canadians.  The naughty lady beat them up pretty badly, too.  Ferries and bridges shut down, there was flooding, people died.  Don’t they rate a mention?

Finally, we heard from Ron Paul that FEMA disaster money should not be spent unless equal cuts were made to the budget.  You know that the system that has always worked is that since we can’t know what disasters may or may not visit us in the coming year, Congress allocates some funds to keep FEMA running and then adds more during the year as needed.  Meanwhile, FEMA instructs us that we should keep at least 72 hours of supplies on hand, because we shouldn’t expect help for that long.  Under Paul’s plan to have each expenditure offset with cuts, and its attendant arguing in Congress, we will have to expect to be on our own for at least 72 months.

I hope you fared well.  Until the next time--