[Porsche-O-Phile]

Good to hear that there's something being done, but it's also a year later. The first reaction of people wasn't necessarily to lend helping hands to one another to overcome a common enemy or adversity - it was "me first and everyone else be damned".

Sadly, this is the message we're constantly fed in our society, so it really isn't a surprise that it was the "default mode" so many people flipped into when rules/structure disapeared. We made those people through the society we create every day. They were simply acting in accordance with our societal expectations and the reality of THAT is maybe what was so despicable about it as we watched the whole mess unfold from the comfort of our living rooms.

FWIW I sent a check to the Red Cross and I did offer to volunteer to go at my work (they asked if any of our people would be willing to go to help rebuild critical infrastructure on-site by offering our professional & technical services - namely telecommunications, which is the primary focus of our office and about 75% of what I work on daily). I figured anything was better than sitting around doing nothing. But again, that's response of "disconnected" people and after-the-fact. I bet the situation would be a lot different if/when a major earthquake hit Los Angeles and half the city was in shambles. I bet it turns into a war zone in very short order - until "outsiders" come in to help and offer their assistance.

Point is, the "values" of our society make the direct/immediate victims of a tragedy painfully incapable of overcoming their selfish attitudes and confronting a tragedy - it isn't until those outside come in that things can be restored to "normal".

It's the reality of this that frightens me about a terrorist attack on a major city with say, a nuclear weapon. If/when THAT occurs, it'll become very obvious how self-centered people are as they steal and kill in the radioactive aftermath while everyone else fumbles around in ineptitude with their collective thumbs up their asses wondering what to do - not all that different than Katrina, really. . .