Redefining Special Needs
Last night, during my 25 minute, 2.5 mile drive to Trader Joe's, I got to listen to Galveston, TX Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas on the radio. She was describing the variety of hurricane evacuation plans the city had put in place this season. She took special care to mention that she and her councilors had devised a comprehensive plan for "special needs" residents.
I thought she was talking about the mentally handicapped, but no, she meant "our people who rely on public transportation."
It was then I realized that the level of cultural retardation in this country won't be reversed in my lifetime. It will certainly be mocked, relentlessly, but that will only make us giggle for a second. No one's going to learn why oil is bad, or why it's impossible for every human to own a large, rubber-tired machine, or that poor people are usually not poor by choice.
On a higher level, if a country's entire artistic output is rooted in irony and mockery--and therefore self-detachment from the overarching culture itself--what does that say about the country in the first place? Do we need another thousand Williamsburgs and another thousand assistant novels to realize that we really don't like it here?
I thought she was talking about the mentally handicapped, but no, she meant "our people who rely on public transportation."
It was then I realized that the level of cultural retardation in this country won't be reversed in my lifetime. It will certainly be mocked, relentlessly, but that will only make us giggle for a second. No one's going to learn why oil is bad, or why it's impossible for every human to own a large, rubber-tired machine, or that poor people are usually not poor by choice.
On a higher level, if a country's entire artistic output is rooted in irony and mockery--and therefore self-detachment from the overarching culture itself--what does that say about the country in the first place? Do we need another thousand Williamsburgs and another thousand assistant novels to realize that we really don't like it here?
posted by Rob at 10:57 AM
3 Comments:
Wow. Special needs = "poor". Where's the cutoff? Am I special needs if I can't afford to leave town (and my job) and spend a few weeks at my summer house on the beach? Or maybe my winter ski-lodge? Or just if I need a bus to be available. Maybe anybody that doens't have access to a corporate jet, or who is important enough to warrant their very own helicopter evacuation is special needs. This comment just seems very very half-baked and I would imagine a mayor, or other public official would know when to bite his/her toungue. If you think that the roads around your neighborhood are bad around morning or afternoon rush hour, imagine how bad the traffic will be if/when everybody who owns a car in your town/city/county/state (depending on how large the imminent threat is) takes to the streets. It seems that the intelligently designed plan would be to incorporate busing etc... even for those individuals who own a car. If there is truly an imminent threat to life, it doens't make sense to let every car in the area all on the same highway. I would imagine that you'd have families that have about 4 cars, trying to quickly packall of their belonging into their cars, and then taking off, one driver per car, and other families, who might have one car, or no cars, standing around looking for a ride. Of course the roads may be so packed nobody is really going anywhere... I realize this comment is getting a lil long, so just one more thing. I've been told by a friend that used to work for the bus company here that the local evacuation plan in case of nearby nuclear meltdown (from the powerplant) involves the county buses picking up people at designated pick up points and trying to get them out of the area. Even this plan which includes buses, and has planned evacuation routes has 2 flaws in my mind. I have no idea where these pickup point are... and the bus drivers need to volunteer for this emergency duty (ala, the fleet of buses will only beup and running if the local bus drivers feel like helping out rather than just getting out of town with their own loved ones) I don't have anything against bus drivers, but the New Orleans Katrina disaster saw police officers quitting their jobs because the situation was too dire. Police officers and other emergency government workers have more of duty, and oath, in my mind to protect and serve than do the local bus drivers of westchester county.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
in NBC's 10.5 Apocalypse (I tapped it if anyone wants to watch it. It's superbly awful) Galveston gets destroyed when North America splits in two. So poor or rich, ain't none of them getting out alive.
Also, at the Pearl Jam concert in NJ last, had a dirty bomb been treatened, all of us waiting on line for a bus woulda died.
Ain't no plan like a faulty plan
"...the level of cultural retardation in this country won't be reversed in my lifetime. ... No one's going to learn why oil is bad, or why it's impossible for every human to own a large, rubber-tired machine, or that poor people are usually not poor by choice."
that's a mighty forward statement for a former gas-guzzling traveler who doesn't give much of a fuck about the environment in their personal/domestic life. color me progressive, but sometimes i think you think that just because it's not going to be reversed in our lifetime, you're not responsible for trying to change it.
ditto for the comments on cynicism. you rarely take a non-cynical tone when discussing social issues. you're trafficking in the same cynicism you're dissing when you talk about williamsburg and chick lit.
and your statement that our "country's entire artistic output is rooted in irony and mockery" is such utter shit that it doesn't even merit arguing.
quit building paper tigers and THINK. and then ACT.
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