Response to: Chicago Tribune Writer Goes Under Fire For Wishing for Hurricane Katrina For Chicago

Source: http://www.mediaite.com/online/chicago-tribune-writer-comes-under-fire-for-column-wishing-for-hurricane-katrina/

When I read about what a Chicago Tribune writer wrote of how they wished for a Hurricane Katrina for Chicago, the first reaction that hit me was: ‘what is wrong with you?’ I found the column and read it and felt that I understood what she was trying to convey. Her intentions throughout the piece expressed desire and hope for reform and a new beginning for Chicago. However, the way they went about expressing it aroused a lot of shock and offended many Katrina victims.

I think the piece was enormously focused on hoping for reform not only for Chicago despite it being focused on Chicago but addressed to the entire country. There is corruption everywhere and reform is desperately needed. I don’t blame the writer for writing such a piece because they believe that only with a fast, hard, and deadly physical disaster would opened people’s eyes and wake them up from their own self-centered fantasizes and lifestyles. However, because of how it was worded at some parts…it didn’t have the type of effect I am sure the writer wanted it to have and it backfired. That is why I feel the most powerful people in the world isn’t a doctor, nor lawyer, but a writer. Why a writer? Because words can cut deeper than fear than diseases itself, a pen has the power to lift a person and their noble acts up or it can ruin someone into the deepest pits of hell.

Whenever, I read, see, or hear about wildfires, horrible earthquakes, shootings, deaths, floods, hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes, I pray for those who lost homes, their lives, but I also pray that it never happens where I live. As selfish as that sounds, but who wants to experience those horrible near death experiences, terrifying forces of nature?  Who doesn’t want their home to stand peaceful and not suffer any horrible natural disasters? I’ve never experienced earthquakes or hurricanes or any of the sort, but I have lost loved ones and experienced the pain and suffering of losing something. That feeling is horrible and I don’t want to experience it again even though that is only wishful thinking. That is why I said I understood the writer for wishing for a hurricane for Chicago because sometimes only experiencing a horrible loss and going through something devastating is the only way to open the eyes of the city, of politicians, of people and make them grow and change.

Ever since the beginning of the very first government system on the earth, social reform always occurs when the government has deep roots of corruption, when the cries of the people are too loud to ignore any longer, when corruption is so obvious that it can no longer be overlooked but it all comes from the heart of the people if they are willing to make changes. In history, horrible floods, droughts, and quakes brought people together and voices became so loud, suffering so horrifying, and images so terrifying that forced the government to change to a better state such as offering relief of taxes, aiding in supplies, and so forth.

My aunt used to say that you have to fall hard in order to know what must be changed as a person but over the years—I started to feel that way about the country too. They all have to suffer some sort of loss or fall in order to know what must be changed or improved for the wellbeing of the entire, city, state, and country. I am not wishing for a hurricane or a horrible disaster to occur in every state. However, I listen to news each day and there’s fires, deaths, floods, everywhere, everyday, so isn’t that already forcing the country to change little by little as small as it may be? I may be wrong so please correct me if I am.

I just feel we don’t need a huge hurricane or earthquake to force the government to reform. These daily events, daily disasters around the counter, daily protests, the voices of disapproval from civilians on all social media platforms, should be more than enough to encourage reform. That’s just me. I don’t know how big of an event is needed to force the hands of politicians’ to take the initiative and start reformation. Yes, I understand reforms are scary and difficult. Reforms may take years to plan out, months to put down on paper and ease into action but it has to be done. Of course there may be protests and disapproval from some people, but we should see it as a way to take back the plan and fix the way we go about reform.

I feel people just have a lack of faith in the government now though for reformation. Because although the United States is the richest and most progressed country, it has never been able to get anything done, everything is just a big heap of tangled strings and knots. And that is why the writer from Chicago Tribune wrote the piece wishing for a Hurricane Katrina. I don’t know. These are all just my assumptions and I shall make no more.

Please feel free to discuss and leave comments.