I have a friend named Catherine Boyd. She lives in Ventnor City, NJ. She plays the violin like a champ. She managed to go out inland just in time before Hurricane Sandy hit. Her and her husband, an artist, are safe. Her cat is happy. She can't go back to her house yet, the sewage system is on overload and 8 feet of water flooded the street around the corner from where she lives. Here's part of the email she sent me:
"Truth
is, I've been unable to go to sleep every night. I'm worried sick about
my husband's artwork in our garage and in his store on Ocean City
(which we just found out got 2 feet of water). We're not allowed to go
and check on anything yet, we're not allowed to go back on these islands
for whatever reason (looting, potential poops in the street, we're
tenants in the store and the owners are letting insurance adjusters in
first instead of us). It takes mold only 12 hours to take root. On top
of
the raw sewage and toxic chemicals, oh God I'm crying again. We may
have lost 200K of artwork. I pray that it's less. Not knowing is making
us crazy.
I'm
worried sick about mold growing on my husband's artwork. I cry when I
think of the food spoiling in our fridge. It's not like we're super
wealthy people here. We're
supposed to stay with a friend tonight, who lives about 20 minutes away
from
our place. There's a tree across his driveway, so thank God my instinct
was to take shelter far inland."
I was supposed to go to Philly this weekend by train. Amtrak is closed because of the intense damages and disruptions caused by the storm. I was annoyed and angry. But here I am, pissed that my weekend plans are ruined, and there's a woman who can't get back to her home because there's literal shit in the streets.
I'm taking my refund money that I get from Amtrak and donating it to the Red Cross.
I'm not trying to be preachy or holier-than-thou because I kinda needed to be preached too. I'm not really the person who floods News Feeds with pictures of starving African children and all those other important social and humanitarian issues. But it takes that one personal story for it to hit you. Yes, I can tweet "my prayers and thoughts go out to the victims" and all that. Which is a nice sentiment. It's a nice, simple thing to send your thoughts/prayers/good vibes/etc and I'm just a spiritual enough person to believe that it has to have some sort of effect. But it's not the least someone can do. It's, like, less than the least I can do. That doesn't make sense, but it does to me. I'm not poo-pooing on people who made things like that their statuses, nor am I poo-pooing on the people who were celebrating not having school or complaining about no power. Or the people making Gifs and memes of the hurricane with Sandy Cheeks superimposed (those were funny). Make those jokes, celebrate not having school, send out your prayers and thoughts. But you can do more. Most usually, "doing more" in a situation like this means giving money to somebody. And we can all definitely afford even $5 or something.
Again, not trying to be preachy, I hope I don't come off that way. What I'm saying is do something. Even if that means giving some money. It can also mean volunteering. Or going to your neighbors house and helping pick up some branches that fell or something. Just do something. Volunteer. Donate. Or don't, I'm not your boss.
Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations
Direct Relief International
http://www.directrelief.org/donate/
PS. NBC is doing a big benefit concert on NBC this Friday, 8-9pm, with money going to the
Red Cross to help New Jersey residents affected by Sandy. Bruce, Bon
Jovi, Billy Joel,
et al are going to be on air. If you're one the Twitter, tweet about it using #RedCrossCommunity. Because **schmultzy, corny statement alert** we are all one big ass community.
PPS The title of the post is a quote by Roger from American Dad's first episode. Has nothing to do with anything besides "Sandy."
