Hi, Monday. I am in Detroit in a hotel room covered in chintz, not exactly the Detroit I was intending on seeing, but still nice nonetheless.
I was, like everyone else, watching coverage of the hurricane and can't believe that the media made so many people feel so very paranoid about it. If there's one thing I know from living in Miami for 7 years (and I don't know much), it's how to handle a hurricane, and shame on the media for scaring the shit out of people when they knew damn well that a tropical storm or category 1 'cane would not mess with things too greatly. I did see on Facebook that people got some flooding in their basements, but major rainstorms can do that, and Northeasterners have seen worse storms in the form of snow than this non-event. I get where the fear came from from my pals up North who have never been through a hurricane, but I feel the reporting was irresponsible to say the very least, especially when they realized (and oh they definitely realized) it was not going to be so bad. It's almost like when you get so deep into telling a lie, it's hard to get out of it. And in a city like New York, one of the most neurotic cities in the USA with more people in therapy per mile than anywhere else, it's not cool to scare people like that. Haven't New Yorkers been through enough, really?
The inevitable ennui that set in was obvious if you were following your friends on Facebook, who seemed somehow disappointed that they drank themselves into a stupor and carbo loaded for nothing. Then, there were the few angry ones who bitched that people should not complain about NOT having a hurricane (true that) considering what can really happen in a bad one, and then there were those whose sump pumps failed and were standing in a basement of water, cursing those on high ground in buildings on 72nd Street, who were not aware that yes, some people did get affected by this.
I tweeted this am an interesting piece in "The Atlantic" about our collective narcissism as a nation, and what must the world think of us as we self obsess over anything and everything? In the scope of what is going on globally, I feel it was irresponsible of the media to portray this storm the way they did, especially when it became clear it was not going to kills us all. And though it was interesting to read about people's experiences, I must admit that as a Miamian now, I was sort of wondering what all the hype was about, and as I flew to Detroit yesterday morning and watched CNN from the plane (I like Delta, it's wireless and has TV screens on every seat), I felt that all of the epic reporting in nework branded rain gear was really silly, and even Anderson Cooper, as noted in that Atlantic article, seemed sheepish about the whole thing.
And since the news is being reported by all of us these days and our extended social networks, maybe it's time to take matters into our own hands and calm people down- the media is not going to, so perhaps we should count on each other for the real stories. I am thankful that precautions were taken after the mismanagement of Katrina, but now Bloomberg looks to be a bit of a nervous nelly, and people in New York with no subway and having to be trapped in small apartments is the equivalent of the plague. This was no such scourge, but at least Northeasterners know how to prepare if the shit goes down for real. And that's what I have to say about that, really. I am very glad you are all safe p there PS. You really don't want to know what a big hurricane, in terms of the category (cause Irene was a big, big gal that simply lost her steam) can do. Or maybe it's time to focus on something other than the weather? It's a bit of a bore, no?
Cause that's what's up this early am in the Motor City. The weather is quite good here, for real. I just don't want to talk about it, ok? XO