[with a z] ...
such frivolous things as manners …
2 Comments
i know, i haven’t blogged in a while. i’ve decided that i am a popcorn blogger; someone that decides to blog when an idea, thought, or reason pops up, in other words, sporatically. i admire people who blog daily, monthly or even regularly but that’s not me. so, today i had a thought…. actually, it’s been in my head for awhile now but i have never felt the urge to write much about it until now. i wrote a similar blog a while back but this one is a bit more simple, straight-forward and to the point. it’s about manners. first of all, let me say that manners are not frivolous. manners do not beg interpretation. unlike many things, there is an unspoken yet globally agreed-on set of basic rules that are the very least that we, as members of the universal society , can do to assist in spreading just a little bit of civility, peace, and respect throughout our world. it is the first and foremost step to humanitarian action. manners are essential in a human society. i do not understand why some people feel like the use of them are optional. technically, i guess one does have the freedom to choose whether or not they engage in mannerly behavior but i simply do not understand anyone who would choose not to. are they trying to make a point that nobody dictates anything to them? are they trying to make a point to the person to whom the manners should be directed that they do not acknowledge, appreciate or respect them? do they have some sort of impairment or disorder such as attention deficit [a.d.d.] that interferes with their memory every single time they need to make an effort?
specific manners differ around the world. however, there are certain actions of primary decency inherent in every society that have evolved for the survival of the species which include peace, respect [funny how that word keeps coming up] and a general sense of just “being nice” that is internally or even externally based, in some people’s situations, that is necessary in the global community. having experienced numerous occasions where some he or she did not even bother to be mannerly, i have come to the conclusion that people like this are either mentally challenged [they simply do not and cannot understand], egotistical, immature, manipulative, or just plain mean. i can no longer give excuse to store clerks who do not greet their customers in a pleasant manner, to friends that fail to communicate at least minimally, to anyone that receives a gift [relished or not] and does not issue some form of thank you, to children that address their parents inconsiderately, to those fake nice people who use tone and facial expression to insult, or to any of the many people out there that somehow, somewhere decided not to practice this basic human survival tactic. in addition, it is my view that people guilty of being non-mannerly should apologize [another basic human survival tactic] to the person to which they acted upon such a way. i have a theory, supported by research [it is late, i will be glad to provide sources upon request later], that natural selection is still occurring. who do you think will be the ones to survive? the mannerly or the non-mannerly? i don’t think the answer to that is even a question. if you do not have manners, you may get away with it for awhile, with people to whom you’ve convinced you have a valid reason for acting in such a barbaric way, but in the end, you will have fewer friends, less respect in your family and community, and most probably, less satisfying marriages and i would leap to surmise, less successful children than those who practice being mannerly . those with manners have succeeded in the first step of looking beyond themselves and it is these people and their bloodlines which will endure through the process of natural selection. social behavior is as important as physical attributes, mental prowess or emotional awareness. there is a song entitled ‘only the strong survive‘. true human strength is a combination of many elements. so think about it. are you mannerly? is there someone you need to go back and make things right with because of your dis-mannerly conduct? do people respect you or have a lowered opinion of you because of your lack of polite ways? do you evenlike yourself? perhaps you need to garner respect for yourself before you can even begin to take the baby step of branching out to be respectful of others. don’t wait; if you do, you might find yourself “voted off the island“.
there simply is no excuse for this kind of rudeness and to me, that is exactly what people who do not practice proper manners [whether they feel like it or not] are; simply rude. i was on a social networking site tonight chatting with a gentleman from yorkshire. he asked me what i liked so much about england in contrast to the united states [i had made several comments to that effect on my profile]. one of my answers was simply manners. to take it a bit further, think of maslow’s heirarchy. basic needs must be fulfilled before one can move on to attaining lesser needs and eventually desires. it is the same with manners. if a person never learns to be mannerly, they will simply become stuck within thier own selfishness and be unable to progress through the social conventions designed for success, fulfillment and joy. i do not know about you, but i would not want to spend my whole life missing out on those things i wholeheartedly admit that no one is perfect; i am sure i have offended a few people in my lifetime and i have tried to make things right, general statement right here and now, i apologize. the thing is, our world is what we are. a lot of people out there are trying to make it better. they moved past this manners thing a long time ago. these are the people that are changing our world. musicians like bono, coldplay, greenday; organizations like oxfam, amnesty international , and conservation international; politians like barack obama [obama’s angels]; independent groups like the elders. how does it make you feel to read about all the things these people are doing while you refuse to utter so much as a simply thank you? please, don’t brag about “going green” or volunteering at a homeless shelter if you don’t have the decency to be a proper human first. in summation, i could rant on for hours about this and tell you stories you would not believe but i wi’ll end for now. i am sure you have gotten my point. if you are one of these un-mannerly people, do yourself and our world a favor… look past yourself and start in on the manners. you just might find it brings more to you than you put out. thank you for taking time to read this blog. i felt it was important and feel much better having had my say. good day!
find out about yourself
rudeness, interrupted: are you rude?
helpful hints
dealing
reward yourself
i practice good manners T-shirt
*note: there is a plethora of great books out there on manners; one of my favorites is “Miss Manners: Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior”, but remember, you have to read it, not just use it as a home decor accessory
Tags: ADD, adhd, advice, advise, angels, aspergers, attention, barack, basic, behavoir, best, blog, bono, books, challenged, chris martin, coldplay, communication, conduct, conservation, coworkers, culture, cultures, curtousy, cutes, decency, deficit, dido, earth, England, excruitiatingly, excuses, fail, family, forget, friends, frivolous, global, going, good, green, greenday, guide, heirarchy, helpful, highest, homeless, human, humanitatiran, inherent, international, island, job, manners, maslow's, mean, mentally, miss, natural, needs, nice, obama, off, oxfam, peace, people, practice, president, proper, quiz, rant, rating, relationships, remember, respect, rude, rudeness, selection, simple, social, species, States, succeed, survival, t-shirt, thank, the elders, U.S., United, universal, US, voted, websites, world, you, yourself, youtube
first responders & their families
1 Comment
courtesy of first responder magazine
my husband is a first responder. so is my son. many people’s husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and family are first responders. this may mean they are a police officer, a firefighter, an ems technician, an ambulance driver, in the military, or even one of many, many support services that keep all these occupations [and many others] operating. whoever the first responder is, they put a lot on the line and there’s generally no argument about that. they have made commitments to put the safety and welfare of others ahead of themselves. they are, no doubt, the everyday hero’s of our world.
yet…. i never realized what exactly the families of some of these first responders go through.
i understand everyday what it is like to kiss a husband in law enforcement goodbye never knowing what the day will bring. however, this past fall, i understood what it was like to watch your military son leave to serve his country in iraq. and this past month, when hurricane ike hit houston, i understood the burden of responsibilities that fall upon the families of these first responders when they are away on extended shifts taking care of everyone else’s families.
for almost 3 weeks, my husband worked 12 hour plus shifts, often bunking at his station because there was no time to make the 45 minute turned 3 hour commute home and return back again on time [due to debris, flooding, and road closures]. i was left with a damaged house to clean up, kids to take care of, and a numerous host of things that in ordinary circumstances, would be difficult enough with him at home. we had no power and we were told the drinking water was not safe. we had to try to find food as we had been advised to stock up for only 72 hours. well, 72 hours turned into weeks. i have a daughter with diabetes who must have her insulin and whose insulin must be kept cold. i have rheumatoid arthritis but had to pick up, in some cases, whole trees, and move them to a safer place as designated by our community association. my children and i raked the yard for 3 days only to redo it all over again each morning thereafter as nightly winds scattered more debis across the neighborhood. we ate cold canned food, went to bed at sundown and got up at sunrise.
please don’t take this the wrong way, i am not complaining! i am thankful that we were not injured, the damage to our home and neighbors was not worse, and we all came out of it ok [which many, unbeknown as a result of the almost absent media coverage, did not] . complaining isn’t what this blog is about. i am simply relaying one story, my story, as an example of what millions of first responders families go though.
to break it down a little, let’s take just one institution of first response: hpd. the houston police department employees over 5,000 officers. that is 5,000 families who were without a family member during this [and many other] crises. multiply this by all the differing professions that first responders occupy, taking into account all of the crisis interventionists, per se, in all the world and you have a whole bunch of families that end up in need themselves. families that for the most part, never complain, never ask for special assistance, and in fact, forgo much help in order to allow their first responder to do his or her duty. and, might i add, this, in addition, to the fear such families often face regarding the fate of their responder during the crisis itself, is an issue that needs some attention.
i heard a really sad story during hurricane ike [and there were and continue to be many], but this one was about a first responder, a police officer and his family nonetheless. no, he wasn’t injured physically but you could say he was injured financially, socially, and i’m sure, motivationally. this police officer, who shall go unnamed, called his station to report that a huge tree had fallen though the roof of his house and that he needed to attend to it to ensure the safety of his family. his supervisor’s response was that he must “come in” or suffer the consequences. well… he chose to make sure that his family and kids were safe, their belongings protected from the elements, and that they had somewhere to sleep. as a result, he was suspended.suspended, i am sure, without pay and his record blemished for the rest of his career.
in the ‘duty to put others first”, do these families not count?
something is wrong here.
somewhere, somehow, we need to learn to take care of each other and in doing so, not forget the caretakers themselves.
Tags: aid, ambulance, american, arthritis, career, caretakers, children, complaining, concern, concerns, cop, debris, democracy, department, diabetes, disasters, doctor, driver, each, ems, fairness, family, fire, firemen, first, flooding, here, houston, hpd, humanity, hurricane, ike, insulin, iraq, is, justice, kids, media, military, natural, nurse, officers, other, police, political, post, priorities, protect, proxy, public, responders, rheumatoid, sad, serve, service, shifts, social, station, story, suspension, unnoticed, welfare, what, world, wrong
something weird about ike
4 Comments
satellite image of hurricane ike as it approaches texas coast
i live north of houston. we had a hurricane sweep though here early saturday [9/13] morning. i love hurricanes. i plot them. i am amazed at their sheer power and strength. i find the wind beautiful and inspiring. don’t get me wrong. i am in no way implying that i welcome the devastation and destruction that so often accompanies them. in fact, i abhor it.
i was not in a voluntary or mandatory evacuation zone. in fact, we were told to shelter in place [meaning not to leave the house] and to ‘hunker down’. we stocked up on supplies, medication, filled up the car with gas, taped the windows, secured everything and still had damage, but thankfully, survived the worst of it.
however, the reason i wanted to blog about this is not because of any of that. there are, i am sure, thousands of blogs posted across the web where you can read different accounts of the storm, see pictures, videos, and even historical comparisons of ike with past storms.
the reason i am writing is that i find some circumstances surrounding ike very unusual.
- the path of ike was unusually unpredictable
- the storm seems to mimic the “galveston hurricane” of 1900 [09/08/00] in many ways including direct hit, storm surge, and tide
- there was very little rain and what rain there was appeared extremely fine and misty [observation, talking to others in the area, local news updates, and report from HPD officer located downtown houston during storm] in fact, on 09.08.08 during passage over cuba, the rain rate remained at under 10 millimeters per hour
- there was no thunder heard [observation & talking to others in the area]
- there was no lightning seen [observation & talking to others in the area]
- the storm encompassed over 600 miles and had an eye of over 60 miles accross at one point
- it did not weaken quickly over land
- although area residents had ample warning and federal disaster aid was set up before the storm even hit, it somehow was delayed for approximately 3 days
- the storm surge was equal to that of a category 4 or 5 storm, causing extensive damage some 10 hours or more before the storm [weather channel live reports]
- the storm was reported to maintain 100 mph winds [for hours] even though the pressure was dropping and the storm was moving over the warm waters of the gulf [observation, live news feed]
- although winds were reported to be at about a sustained 110 mph, more damage was done than is/was listed as a possibility with winds of that force or category
- the president did not tour the area until 3 days after the storm
- photos of galveston island have been limited and repetitious, in fact, up until 3 days after the storm, the news was showing the same 4-5 photos on all networks and surprisingly, differing photos could hardly be found on the web [observation, internet search results, fox news, cnn, msnbc]
- 3 days after the storm, residents are finally being allowed on the island in a “look and leave” manner, with an escort and a limited time to survey damage to their own property
- ike was one of a series of storms that developed within a matter of days; each which took a different path and had a different outcome, not so unusual, but it seemed as if several were triggered at once until one got it right. although stacked storms are not unusual, especially at the peak of hurricane season, these all seemed to originate at or about the same area, which is unusual
- downtown houston never did lose power and sustained very little damage although the storm went right through there, including the eye and eye walls. [HPD patrol report downtown houston]. the media reported severe damage. in contrast, areas to the n, s, e and w did have substantial damage
- reportedly, the army corps is not allowing fema onto the island [yet to be confirmed]
- the mayor of galveston stated she would not evacuate the island [this on wed/thur] because it was too late and an evacuation was not possible. she evacuated the island on friday.
- the galveston mayor also said they would not attempt rescues of persons remaining, but thankfully, they did
- supposedly the chief of police for hpd stated that 12 hour shifts could stop 3 days after the storm. the mayor demanded they continue and the area put out a national plea to other police officers to come and help. but not until 3 days after the storm.
- the media has been moved away from the storm operations center in galveston. check out this blog for more information about the lack of information coming out of galveston
- no coverage or official announcement has been given about the condition or damage of/to NASA besides a general closing announcement and some damage reports. ??? isn’t this kind of an important place?
- curfews are in effect not only in blackout areas but in operational areas as well
- almost all of the houston-area refineries are down shooting the cost of fuel up throughout the nation
- the stock market fell 500 pts by friday
- even youtube images of the island are limited to one official flyover video which is very blurry
- today the mayor of galveston told the residents that would participate in the look and leave program that they would not see the coastal devastation that they had seen on the news because it had been cleaned up. cleaned up? already? wait. the mayor has cancelled the “look and leave” program because of traffic congestion and has announced that it will not be tried again. seems this would have been expected and provisions made to deal with it before the program was initiated, that is, if the plans were formulated to be successful in the first place.
- it appears that marshal law is in effect in galveston although the mayor denies it. however, channel 13 local news announced that marshal law is in effect on what is left of boliver peninsula
- nearly 65,000 people live on galveston island. reportedly, over 33% decided to ignore mandatory evacuation orders. to date, the death toll, estimates of people rescued, sheltered, evacuated do not even begin to add up to 65,000.
- all of this fell very close to the seventh anniversary of 09.11
- we haven’t heard a word of campaigning or even had a visit from either of the presidential candidates. they seem to be keeping their distance [all i could find searching were sympathy-related statements; granted, obama is helping to solicit donations by linking to the red cross on his website and through emails, but you would think they [obama and mccain] would want to be here in person
please don’t get me wrong. this blog is not meant to complain. we were lucky and my heart goes out to those whose fate is yet to be determined. it is simply my try at putting words this vague yet pervasive feeling that something is just not natural in this whole ordeal.
what became of the 140,000 people who faced certain death from hurricane ike?
media coverage limited on hurricane ike
wordpress blogs on hurricane ike
Tags: 000, 140, 500, 9/11, aide, blackout, campaign, center, coast, conspiracy, cover, coverage, coverup, crash, cross, cuba, curfew, death, deaths, disaster, dow, evacuation, events, freaky, fuel, galveston, gas, gulf, hurricane, ike, information, johnson, law, leave, lightning, limited, limits, look, market, marshal, mayor, mccain, media, nasa, nation, natural, obama, police, policy, power, president, price, question, questions, rain, red, refinery, resident, space, stacked, stock, storms, theory, thunder, toll, traffic, trilogy, unnatural, unsual, up, visit, weather, zeitgeist
[with a z] ... 