Poor Behavior

So, as the NFL Player Protest Backlash continues, Dale Earnhardt Jr speaks contrary to Richard Childress and Richard Petty, and fans in various places are posting videos of them burning their team's (driver's) swag, while whining on Facebook about how they are “no longer fans”.  Yeah, I guess I get it, you don't want politics infringing on your sports, forget that 70% of people ignore politics (until the elections and things aren't going right).

Personally, I can find a better waste of money, sports goods aren't cheap, last time I looked at a hat, it was nearly $30, for just a basic hat with a team logo on it. I guess it was made by Rebok, I don't know, I didn't like the look of the hat, or the price tag associated with it, so I used my discretion and left it at the store, I have bills to pay, and limited money, a new hat could wait. But that the thing, people do have the extra money to spend on gear from their favorite teams and drivers, so they do.

But now, they are mad because... So, they run out to their grill, grab a lighter at the store, or maybe break out the blow torch, and let it burn. Yeah that really proves something, it proves that you are perfectly okay with wasting your hard earned money. Well, it is your money, you can burn it if you want to, but think about this for a moment: There are people who have nearly lost everything in several catastrophic natural disasters.

There are people who are worse off than I, who have favorite teams, and those hats/jerseys/etc would be a great help. So, rather than burn it, donate it. Give it to any organization that is in need of cloths. Nah, what do I know, its better to just burn it, so nobody can use it, because its far better to act like a child, and squander money than it is to actually make something good happen, because... You're angry.

Speaking of which, while you jump on your teams fan page to whine about the actions of team members (or a drivers page) on Facebook, be aware that these pages are often not affiliated with said team/driver. It is a fan page, created by fans. Sometimes the team has control of the page, but lets be honest, they don't read every comment, but you know who does read the comments, other fans. Sometimes we'll comment, I know I have from time to time, but most of the time people just scroll through. Think about it, for every thousand reactions, comments, and thousands of sub-comments, there are thousands more who look and wonder “WTF is wrong with these people.” Personally, when people who aren't familiar with a sport look at a fan page, we are the representatives of our team. My rant, if people saw or read it, reflects on the Steelers organization, when I comment on Facecbook, with my profile pic wearing a Steelers hat, everything I post that is sports related reflects on them, just as when my profile pic was of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car, it would reflect on him for those who don't know who he is.

So, here I see many people who aren't familiar with sports, but with politics, seeing a whole bunch of people going utterly insane, over using their free speech. Hey, I like playing the roll of fanatical fan, when the playoffs come and the Steelers are coursing a way to the Superbowl, I am practically rabid (the same when the Pens go to the Stanley Cup, Jr. made the chase, or when whatever Ferrari driver wins the F1 championship or race). For a while there, I think I knew the Italian National Anthem, as well as the German one (from Schumacher winning all the time in his F1 Ferrari).

Okay, so while I have been ranting at the stupid wastefulness of some of the American People, CNN has been running coverage of Maria, the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico. As of this instant, there are over ten thousand (10,000) shipping containers worth of goods that the residents need. Cruise ships are sitting in port, loading up those with severe medical conditions, and cries (from FEMA) of not having enough truck drivers to move the goods. Yet we are complaining about NFL players taking a knee, sitting in the tunnel, or in the locker room before a game.

Seriously, a man who had major heart surgery, and should be on a boat off that island in a “really really big ocean”, should be where he is ensured proper medical treatment. Yeah, years after that kind of open heart surgery, you're going to need major medical care. But since he didn't register for evacuation, he is stuck, I guess thats fair. Please insert eye roll here. Registered or not, people like him should get on a boat before the people in my position, no known medical conditions (outside of crippling anxiety). People had to string a steel cable to ford a river, just so they could get a person with renal failure (or at least renal problems requiring dialysis), and get supplies. Look, there is a gentleman on the news right now saying they need hands, and at this point, in normal circumstances, I would say if you have a CDL strike out to this island, but I fear it might make things worse (still if you have a CDL, try and find out if you can help by going). These are, after all, our fellow countrymen and women. They are our fellow citizens (they just aren't considered a state).

FEMA is ill prepared for what happened with Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria. Certainly they have handled Harvey fairly well, from what I haven't heard. Literally, I have heard little to nothing about the damage done to Harvey (Insert Kevin's GoFundMe). Outside of a good friend who last I heard was expecting his house to be flooded for several weeks after the initial flooding. Irma, I have heard from people who live in Key West, who are having major problems getting onto the FEMA site for the benefits offered to them, while they try and rebuild. Personally, I wouldn't live in Key West or Florida in general, its too expensive, you're constantly dealing with tourists, and there are a handful of stores (requiring some major purchases being bought on the mainland). But, they love where they live, and they want to stay there. Then we have several islands (of which Puerto Rico is the one being talked about the most), which are in utter ruins, people are trying to get off of them, while our government appears to be twiddling its thumbs.

Look, I know our government is at least putting forth a halfhearted effort on this, but like Katrina, it shows that our systems are ill prepared for major disasters. And the truth, like it or not, is that these disasters are going to become far, far worse, and far more frequent. Yet here we sit, arguing about Climate Change, if it is real or a hoax, how large a role we play in it, and what we can do about it. We can do a lot, but it is going to require change, something that people in the US and the world seem to be highly resistant too.

Our infrastructure is severely lacking, our damns and levees are ill prepared for storms the scale we have seen this year alone. Our roadways cannot handle the massive amounts of traffic from people fleeing these storms, or get supplies to affected areas before or after the storms. Buildings aren't constructed to withstand the wind-speeds associated with these storms. Speaking of wind-speeds, little can fully withstand wind-speeds of a Category 5 hurricane. But that doesn't mean we can't try and figure it out, and try to retrofit or build new structures that can withstand these types of wind. We need to ensure that the damage can be limited, as much as possible. And as Lt. Gen. Horone just said, we need to break the rules on this (in reference to getting help to those on Puerto Rico). It is going to mean doing these retrofits on the government dime, without repayment in many instances.

But here is the warning, as these storms get larger, and more powerful, it is only a matter of time before one of these super hurricanes makes landfall in a heavily populated area. Harvey was not an isolated incident, and the damage could have been a lot worse than fifty some odd inches of rainfall, severe flooding, and wind damage. Imagine if Harvey or Irma would have made landfall on major parts of the mainland, and they had been more powerful than they were. Imagine Katrina hitting New Orleans as a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. That could very well happen by the end of this hurricane season, it could happen during the next, or in the seasons that follow. This is not a hoax, this is not being an alarmist, and this is certainly not a conspiracy, this is a very real thing, and it can affect swaths of the population, not just in the US, but in the Pacific Ocean as well.