A dearth of real men
Baldilocks has a wealth of thoughtful commentary and useful/interesting info and links about New Orleans. Here's a link to the specific post from which I'm quoting (it's on top at this moment), but you really should go to her main page and just keep reading post after post of good stuff.
Like me, Baldilocks was impressed by Jabbar Gibson (and had posted about him earlier). In her latest post, she draws a connection between the dearth of Jabbar Gibsons and the plentiful supply of kids with no fathers:
Back when I was growing up, real men took charge and made decisions. They protected women and children--especially their own children--and got them out of harm’s way; out of the way of things like hurricanes, especially when they had days of advance warning. And if they made the wrong decision, they tried to make things right and/or took the consequences. Like young Jabbar Gibson.
They didn’t expect someone else to be the protector—be the man—and then whine about how the substitute man wasn’t being the substitute man fast enough.
No one should wonder that gangs of thieves, terrorists, rapists and murderers plagued the refugees. Such are the rotten fruit of fatherless societies--societies with a dearth of real men.
Baldilocks is Juliette Ochieng of Los Angeles. A very interesting woman. Check out her biography and her contributer profile at Pajamas Media (scroll down past the two ugly guys).
I love her "One-Line Bio" and can totally relate:
You know you're old when your baby pictures are in black and white.
When an event happens as catastrophic as Katrina, I think we all try to
figure out why people react as they do. We also try to put ourselves in the
situation and would like to think that we would do better. I learned many
years ago the difference between reacting like I thought I would and
actually reacting out of fear. I do not think that this is the time to
discuss all of the social or political reasons why we think people are not
reacting as we think they should. For one thing, we do not have enough
information to know if there were any more villains than heroes. It seems
that your community likes to take any circumstance to prove their points
about society. Now, would be a time to be silent and reflect on the
impermanence of life and property. Instead, you all are vibrating in your
truth; creating a resonance that could destroy compassion.
If "your community" means this blog and others that I've linked to on this
subject, I don't see anyone counting up heroes and villains and "keeping
score." We praise and admire the heroes -- I teared up watching Jabbar
Gibson on TV. We feel for the victims. And we get angry at the villains. I
think those are human and appropriate reactions.
Compassion encompasses more than just charity. Where is empathy?
Why is it that the worthiness of the victims is an undercurrent theme?