Would we really have done anything differently?

I've been reading and commenting on the Orlando and New Orleans metroblogs over the last few days on the, for the most part civil, discussion about the effects of Katrina and all that has happened before, during and after.

One topic that comes up over and over is that a lot of this situation could have been prevented. Yes, that's true it could have. People knew since approximately 1716 that it probably wasn't the best place to build a city, and more recently that the levees holding back the water were in serious need of repair and rebuilding. Many of us - including myself - have thought, "Why didn't you get those fixed!? Citizens should have banned together and demanded that repairs be the number one priority in the state!" But wait, why didn't they?

After thinking about it for a while I came to this conclusion - we (meaning ANY other state, not just Florida) probably wouldn't have done anything about it either. All of us would like to think that when faced with a very large, expensive, tedious task that must be done for the good of the community, we would just go out there and get it done. Fact is, we probably wouldn't.

It's easy to say that you just need to go out there and do it - but considering how long (almost 300 years) these issues have been around and even as significant as they were, I doubt that before last summer an old, leaky levee was hardly the priority on the mind of any Average Joe New Orleans citizen. Maybe I'm wrong, but my guess is it was probably one of those things that all of us, as barely voting Americans, face every year around this time. There are a small percentage of people out there - just like I'm sure there are in New Orleans - fighting the good fight and praying that we listen to the things that we need fixed in our communities, whether it be a levee or hurricane preparedness or crime or whatever. Half the time we don't even flinch unless it pertains to taxes or a war. Those seem to be the only things that light a fire under the collective societies ass. Although now that we are having to face the $81.2 billion dollar price tag of the costliest natural disaster in US history and over 1,800 deaths - it seems like these types of things should be on the forefront of everyone's mind.

Let's face facts - we hardly vote. The national turnout average is only somewhere between 45 to 50% of the people who even bother to register in the first place. There are places like Australia that have compulsory voting and see 95% turnouts - but there are many, many more countries out there that have higher voter turnout then we do without mandatory voting rules. We are very much a society of "Yes! That is a very, very important issue! I'm sure someone will take care of it." So why do we do that? Why do we chose to ignore what's in our best interest?

I did a little bit of reading online (and please correct if me if I'm wrong on any of these points) and found a few things. I would guess that most people know that older citizens tend to vote more than younger and that voting in general has been on the decline for about the last 40 years or so. But what else? I've read that financial situations and literacy have some effect, but not enough to account for the decline or are very unreliable to go by. Another interesting idea is that over the last few decades the majority of political finances have gone towards media campaigns and much, much less in getting out in the public and really trying to encourage voters to get to the polls. But even after all that, it seems to me that it comes down needing the real feeling of civic duty and wanting to know about and participate in your government as a whole. So why don't we have an interest in politics in a wider sense than our hot button issues? Why do so many of us believe that our vote doesn't matter, even though we are constantly told that it does?

The fact is I don't know. I think many of us out there have our own opinions and ideas why, but how do we fix it? How do we get people to care about these things? I guess the best example I can think of off hand that is at least similar to the whole levee issue, is how often we are told about wasting our natural resources and how that, fairly soon, that is going to come back and bite us in the ass. Or worse, that it might change the weather patterns and we will have more and more natural disasters. Some scientists tells us this is a real, possibly lethal problem - but what if it takes 300 years to come to fruition? Will generations from now be angry with us for not seeing these problems back when they could still be easily corrected? Before they come with a hefty price tag and a body count?

It's so, so unfortunate - but is this what it takes for many of us to open up our eyes and help get things done in our own communities? Maybe this is a good first step by talking about the issues in places like blogs - where you can express your own opinion and hear from others about their points of view. If we at least get engaged in conversations about where we live and what's going on around us, maybe it will peak our interest in our government and get us back out there.

UPDATE:
Here's a great article from Time, "Floods, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Wildfires, Earthquakes ... Why We Don't Prepare" recommended by one of the comments on the Orlando MetroBlog

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229102-1,00.html

Caution: Mudslinging Ahead!

For the last few weeks all of us in Orlando, and probably across the rest of the country, have had to endure the constant chatter of mudslinging commercials brought to us by the men and women running for office. Thankfully, legally, that should be over by the end of the day.
But I think a word of warning should be out there for all these politicians who tell us they are just looking out for our best interest. Back when I lived in South Dakota I worked for a local TV news station in the promotions department. Most of us can remember, that year in particular, just how bad the mudslinging got between two of the three candidates running for congress. The ads were tasteless, complete fabrications, and anyone with half a brain could see right through them - but these two top candidates were pulling out all the stops to make the other look bad. While the trailing third man was being ignored by both and concentrated on his own random, platform based promotions.
Time finally came for the votes to be counted. Every news station in the area headed to Sioux Falls (a 5 hour trip from our home base)to cover whichever one of the two top candidates would win and catch a glimpse of the mandatory crying family and waterfall of red, white and blue balloons. The hours ticked by and all the groups split into two to cover both camps - the election was expected to be that close. With cameras ready we awaited the announcement.....the winner was....number 3, by a landslide. As everyone piled into their cars to rush back to where number 3 was happily celebrating (3 hours in the other direction) we realized that absolutely no one was there to cover his victory. Rather than being disappointed, we laughed at our shortsightedness in how these campaigns would effect the community. People in our state finally decided they didn't want a bully for their congressman.
So for all you politicians out there - be careful. We are not as stupid as you think and we ARE paying attention to ALL of your campaign, the good and the bad.

Country Mouse, City Mouse

Yes, I'm a Country Mouse. Well, that is until 2 1/2 years ago when I decided that life on the edge of the plains, and the start of the Black Hills of South Dakota, was just too cold of an existence for me and I packed my meager belongings up for the Big City. Most people may not consider Orlando the biggest city on the map, but it was warm, there was a job waiting for me there, and a friend with a cheap room for rent.
Fast forward to 2006 and I couldn't be happier here - I got an even better job than the one I moved down here with, I found a cute boy to marry, and we're expecting our first baby in April. I've found that life in Orlando can be filled with excitement, beauty, and culture - but also filled with potholes and disappointment of life in a large, and still growing, city. I've often found my opinion about things around the city to often be quite different from my husbands, who has lived here his whole life. I would have to guess that I credit most that to being able to compare life from a small town and that of a big city, and being able to see things from an outside point of view.