Grateful for what we have

[Annah]

I was sitting at home last night eating tortilla chips and refried beans and drinking filtered ice water as I watched the news from Louisiana. Hundreds and hundreds of people starving... "I just want some clean water. I'm thirsty." I heard one woman say. "We're hungry!" "Help us! Help us!" They chanted. I got so choked-up I could hardly swallow. I mean, there I was in my comfy chair in my cozy apartment drinking water and eating fresh food and there they were, people who are literally only hours away from me... homeless, lost, scared, starving, desperate, and dying.

It pulled my heart to the floor. It makes my chest tight and I can't help but feel so helpless to help. So I did what I could do in that moment and I logged on to the Red Cross website and donated as much as I could.

I wish that I could take all the food out of my kitchen down there and give it to the people who really need it right now.

There was a man who stood next to his 10-year-old son and said, "We have nothing now." And the two of them grabbed each other and cried so hard. I don't think I've ever seen a man cry that hard.

But they do have something... they have each other and the love that they share. Sometimes love is all we have, especially when there is nothing else left. We truly have nothing when we don't have love to share with others.

I could do without everything I own, but I can't do without the love from my family - my parents, my son, my ex, my closest relatives and friends. And you guys on the JCF. I want you all to know that it goes both ways and I hope that you appreciate it as much as I do. I'm sure you do.

It's strange how tragedy can make you realize just how grateful you are for what you have in your life, isn't it?

[Emthrax]

Re: Grateful for what we have

Well said, Annah.

[Chrisb]

Re: Grateful for what we have

I had the same visceral reaction to 9/11. Working as I do in DC I saw people who's very lives stopped as they waited for names to be released, some of those were my friends and coworkers who had family that worked in the Pentagon. You look at your everyday concerns and stuff that seems like such a big deal to you at the time and it suddenly falls away in the face of such tragedy.

I see the same thing here, I look at everything I have and I don't think I really have the right to bitch about anything anymore, not when every time I turn on the tv I see people in the midst of such utter devastation. The sad thing is that for many people throughout the world, what we see in New Orleans now is a way of everyday life for them. Its all they have known. If you think about it too much it makes you feel like your suffocating but its a reminder just how lucky most of us are.

[guitarsjb]

Re: Grateful for what we have

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Well said, Annah.

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Exactly

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Grateful for what we have

I hope this will make people realize that aside from this (rare occasional) but tragic, nontheless, disaster there are people living in conditions 5x worse, just because we chose to ignore them. I hope we will now start opening our eyes to those people as well.

[veliyasin]

Re: Grateful for what we have

Well written.

[horns666]

Re: Grateful for what we have

very good...I'd just went off about this crap in my own special way of course in my thread..

These "motherfuckers" were always my demons..and the reason for WHY I am the way I am.

Now..finally..others can see these demons..

I don't feel so alone right now in my everlasting hatred for this human garbage..

I'm probaly one of the very few that feels a bit of comfort ..knowing that others can finaly realize what Ive' always knew.

now others can do the yelling and spewing venom for me..

take care,

take care of yourselves and those you love..someone has to..don't count on noboby and nothing but yourselves..because WE are on our own...and just a few of those who look out for each other..

but we are outnumbered by this Human Pollution..in the inner cities fo the most part..

this can happy to ANY major city..

all it take is a tiny spark to start a fire like this..

Bill

[Jack The Riffer]

Re: Grateful for what we have

Very well put Annah. I lived 8 miles from the Superdome for 2 years and to see what that city has become hurts my heart. The same people that took pride in their city are now destroying it. I see all the people around the Superdome and remeber that it looked like that on Sundays and we had huge parties right outside the doors waiting to get into the Saints games. The very place I partied is now littered with bodies and feces. It's very heartbreaking.

[skorb]

Re: Grateful for what we have

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The same people that took pride in their city are now destroying it.

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um, that does not seem to be the case at all. it is the gangs and thugs and scum that always were a threat to normal decent people in New Orleans who are now just doing what they do best, be animals and hurt people just because. the prideful folks are just trying to help each other and get out of there.

[Reverend Timmy]

Re: Grateful for what we have

You hit the nail on the head,Bill.Human Garbage.I have caught hell from members of my family for spending money on guns,a gun safe,ect.I bought these things because I belive in the right to bear arms and to protect my family.What has happened in New Orleans is a eye opener to the whole nation of how sorry a human can become.It is not enough to lose your house,family,security.Now you have to worry about being attacked,raped ,killed by your fellow man.Human Garbage indeed,Bill....................................... ..

[horns666]

Re: Grateful for what we have

you have to take of biz Timmy..

do what you have to do to take care of you and yours..and FUCK what anyone .."thinks"..

[Donovan]

Re: Grateful for what we have

I used this on another forum I look at. Pretty close to the original sentiment:
I like I'd guess most of you have been glued to the TV for the last few days. I've seen the pictures of devastation and stories of human tragedy. I've felt hopeless, angry, sad, and encouraged at the same time. A rollercoaster of emotions. As I watch this event, and feel so badly for these people who have lost EVERY single thing that they had, EVERYTHING, Family, friends, homes, dreams, their entire life gone, I get up to get myself a nice cold glass of filtered water, and a snack, so I can kick back on my nice couch in my air conditioned house, to watch the news on my big screen TV and wonder what I'd like to eat for dinner. I'll jump into my SUV or the Bimmer and run down to the supermarket and buy a bunch of prepackaged food and pop it into the microwave so I can sit back down on my couch and watch more news. When I get tired I'll turn off the light and go up stairs to my nice big bed turn on the air and relax in comfort and safety.

In this same time, my wife's cousin and his children from Biloxi MI will be starving in the hot sun with five day old clothes with no place to go and little to eat or drink, no house to go back to, no way to get out of town. Then they get to sleep in a dangerous area with no real assurance of any relief from the next day, and very little within their power to do about it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give thanks to the things in my life that are really the ONLY thing that matters. My Family, friends, and all the good caring people around the country. there in no possession or amount of comfort worth more then these people.

[horns666]

Re: Grateful for what we have

hail..

[StarRider]

Re: Grateful for what we have

Awesome Annah!!!!! very well said
+1

[horns666]

Re: Grateful for what we have

I'm grateful for these Pizzas that me and my Family is going to eat while watching Team America..while we laugh our asses off..

I suggest that my friends here do something else other than watching that "symphony of destruction" on the boob tube..

It's friday..take a breather from this crap and enjoy yourself or somethin..

Bye ..