everything will not be handed to you on a silver platter

[marathoner452]

Okay, it's time for a rant.  I just finished reading the comments people have posted about this year's NCR Trail Marathon, the one I just ran last Saturday.  Everyone is whining and complaining about how they got a huge performance shirt instead of a fleece vest and about how their race was inexusably meddled with because we ran the course backwards.  If they would spend half as much time running or sleeping as they have complaining, they'd be ready for their next marathon.  Quite bluntly, get a life.  The world does not revolve around you-sometimes mistakes happen and quite honestly, if you're prepared those things won't faze you.

Read the comments here:  http://www.marathonguide.com/races/racedetails.cfm?MIDD=554051126 .   My comments should be up in a few days.  Hopefully they'll be a voice of reason in this disturbing example of our entitlement society.  Sometimes mistakes just happen-it isn't the first time and it won't be the last and I'm sure you've done it yourself at some point.  Hopefully it's just the marathon recovery going to their heads, because it's frankly embarrassing my fellow runners are acting like spoiled children.

Same thing with disasters.  There's a reason we tell you to "Make a plan, Build a Kit."  It's because that while disasters are scary, they do occasionally happen to you and what's even more scary is when you don't know if your family is safe or if you'll be able to survive on your own for the couple of days it'll take until authorities rescue you.  Let Katrina be an example:  rescue and relief agencies cannot reach everyone at once or move as quickly as we'd like.  The point is not so much whether they should but what you can do to protect yourself.

In the end, it's about personal responsibility.  Stop complaining and DO SOMETHING ALREADY. Go for a run or build your kit but don't just sit around blaming others for everything.

End rant.

~Bethany

Comments

[roadwarrior220.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. Complaining solves nothing--it just wastes energy, time, and intelligence. If people spent the energy the used to complain to do something about it instead, we'd be so much better off. I know I complain sometimes, but then I get up and do something about it. Bravo, dear. :-)

[clmcormick.livejournal.com]

From one disaster person to another....HERE HERE!!

[avehoward.livejournal.com]

You'd think that people would be a bit more mature about things...bah.

By the way, late congratulations on a stellar race!

[ratkrycek.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Couldn't have said it better myself.

VERY well said. I know I'll probably be posting a few like rants in the months ahead. Not the marathon part, but the disaster part, for sure.

As I said to my mom the other day, "That's the thing about disasters. You don't always know when they're coming, but you can still plan ahead."

Granted, our culture of fear hasn't helped things any - so many people just say, "Oh, well, it won't happen to us." Or, "We're safe; we don't live in an [insert disaster here] zone."

Just Monday the Red Cross opened a shelter in Middletown because of a hazardous situation with a traffic accident, leaves, and chemicals nearby. It wasn't used, but it could have been. And there are plenty of things that could happen here, especially if the LNG people get their way, or if someone takes it into their head to blow up the Navy base, or something. People get very complacent here in the north - except in the winter, they will take blizzards seriously. But it's maddening.

I remember being a kid, coming home with disaster planning materials from the local fire department, sending away for info from NOAA, reading everything I could, trying to hold the family disaster meetings that were recommended to be held, and my dad just telling me, "Well, you make the plans and we'll look at them at dinner." I expected hi mand mom and me to discuss them, but he just gave them a cursory glance, pronounced them well done, and put told me to put them in a safe place. I was in grade school then, and even now - larger scale, but same deal.

The Red Cross can and does do a lot. People can make it easier for us to do that, not to mention easier and more comfortable for themselves.

Of course, I realize that preparation can cost money some people simply don't have - ditto evacuation - so some folks couldn't leave the path of Katrina, or at least not easily. So I don't blame those folks for not getting out, if they couldn't.

But some people were, and always are, foolhardy. "It won't happen."

Well, guess again, Chief, as my dad would say.

(By the way, my dad did get three smoke detectors for our house and put them where I told him too. We never had a house fire, but I remember the detector near the kitchen door went off every tim emom used the broiler, like clockwork. I told dad well, that's where they told ME to put them.)

Okay. Lecture/rant mode off; why am I preaching to the choir? ;)

[marathoner452.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, took me long enough to reply, didn't it?

That was one of my challenges last year, how to make disaster preparedness possible for low-income families. Because how do you convince someone that disaster preparedness is essential when they're having a hard enough time putting dinner on the table or paying for health care? The only trick I figured out (and I have no way to see if it actually worked) was to tell the kids to assemble a kit very slowly-old backpack to hold the stuff, then a jar of peanut butter or a can of soup or a bottle of water added with every grocery shopping trip.

Or you could give them the kit. I was going to help out with a couple Social Services events where they did that, but I ended up being down in NOLA at the time. But the kit still has to be maintained-new batteries, fresh food, etc.

And I suppose even before all of that, you have to convince people that while disasters are scary, they do occasionally happen to you and you need to be ready and there are simple things (like posting a list of phone numbers on the fridge) that you can do to be more safe.

As far as things like evacuating in the face of major hurricanes...I'll leave that one to the experts. I do know that forcasting the intensity of hurricanes is difficult and it's a fine line between being safe and crying wolf. You want people to believe you the next time you say a catastrophe is going to happen.

Once again, I'm preaching to the choir. But I have a fire safety presentation next Tuesday and I need to get warmed up.

~Bethany