Playing the Blame Game

There’s a reason I tend not to read or watch the news. Primarily it’s that I’m consistently disappointed by how people in this country react to things. It’s not about the tragedy. It’s not about the issue. It’s not even about all of the people who are suffering – reading the news you think it’s only New Orleans that got hit, when in fact, Mississippi bore the brunt of the storm, but New Orleans had a levee break too. But we don’t focus on that. No, we’re looking for a scapegoat.

The same thing happened on September 11th. There were three locations involved. But most of what was covered was the World Trade Center. And certainly, the most people were involved there. But what about the Pentagon. And even more…what about that field in Pennsylvania. Sure, there was no “collateral” damage. But the people on that plane died too. The only thing that made it more bearable, I think, to the nation as a whole is that we had a clear place to turn our hurt, our disgust, and our rage. We had an enemy to blame.

With Katrina, we have no one to blame. You can’t blame nature – not with any satisfaction. So we have to look around and, of course, the eye lands at the top of the ladder. So we blame President Bush. Maybe we’d say we don’t blame him for the storm, but surely he could’ve done something better, right? Even though the state has to ask for federal aid and they didn’t until almost a week passed. Even though a mandatory evacuation order was issued and people didn’t (and still won’t) heed it. Even though hundreds of people began swarming to take advantage of the situation by looting and ravaging the truly innocent victims of the storm with their terror tactics. Even though this is, by the admission of every camp you ask, the worst natural disaster America has ever faced and no one, not any other President in the history of our country, has had to respond to something like this. So really, tell me, how do we know someone else could’ve done better? We don’t. But we want somebody to blame.

People say you can’t blame the people who didn’t evacuate or the state governments because that’s like blaming the rape victim. And while there may be a kernel of truth there – if you’re a woman who chooses to walk alone at night – regardless of what you’re wearing or where you are – shouldn’t you take the precautions necessary to be able to defend yourself? That doesn’t mean tragedy won’t strike – but it does definitely reduce the possibility that it will be as tragic as it might have been otherwise. So, if you choose to stay in a city when a mandatory evacuation order has been given and a category five hurricane is bearing down on you – or even worse, if you choose to fly in from out of town because you’ve scheduled your vacation and nothing is going to stop you and heck, you’ll just have a hurricane party while you’re there – why is this anyone’s fault but your own?

By and large it just seems like America wants to find someone to blame for everything and never own up to any iota of personal responsibility. We see it starting in our schools and continuing into every aspect of life. Burn yourself with coffee? Sue the restaurant. Never mind that it makes sense that coffee is hot and you’d be complaining to the manager if it wasn’t. And the examples are legion.

America has grown arrogant. And we’ve coupled that with an entitlement complex. We’ve lost our ability to see that actions have consequences – and sometimes, maybe even most of the time, the first person we need to think about blaming is ourselves.