Come Hel(ene) and High Water

Hurricane Helene just tore through the country, leaving whole towns and counties completely devastated in its wake. As a resident of North Carolina, I have personally seen the effects that Helene has had on the western part of the state, mainly with Asheville and Buncombe County and the surrounding mountainous terrain. Helene rampaged through Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee as well, wreaking havoc on its path of destruction and countless tragedies in place. Western North Carolina has been particularly adversely effected, with flash flooding eviscerating entire towns and multitudes of cataclysmic events that have left many people without homes. Livelihoods are permanently effected as over a million people are still without electricity, thousands of homes destroyed, entire cities still under water, whole areas decimated and covered in mud and debris, and people struggling to obtain food, water, shelter, medical care, and basic necessities. Lives will never be the same and many are now faced with a reality of extravagant horrors as they try to rebuild their lives from the ground up.

I can’t stop consuming any information I am reading or watching about the after-effects of this once-in-a-century storm. My heart aches for all those who are now suffering in its wake. All of my friends on the western part of the state who are now left with too many questions and not enough answers of what happens next. So many of us looking to help in any way that we can, but not yet knowing how to better offer assistance. Many roadways are still closed due to the catastrophic flooding, and supplies are dwindling fast without a way to replenish them outside of by water or aviation. People need help, and many people are still missing, or have yet found a way to contact loved ones to let them know they are safe. I could not imagine not being able to reach someone so desperately, and being so isolated from the rest of the world. It really puts it into perspective how much we rely on technology in this day and age, and how lost we would be without a way to communicate to one another from thousands of miles away.

It does make me wonder a bit, because I have not seen the amount of coverage I would expect from a storm so completely devastating. I remember quite vividly the outpouring of support after Hurricane Katrina when the levees broke. Western North Carolina is still underwater, and people are dying and without homes or basic medical necessities and supplies, and the majority of news I am seeing is from my friends on social media who are in the thick of it and witnessing it firsthand. People’s lives are forever changed, and our country needs to unite together to help our brothers and sisters who require aid. I am seeing a lot of local people and places stepping up to offer aid in any way, but nowhere near the numbers there have been for other such devastations and tragedies. Where are the donation hotlines and celebrity pleas that there were for Katrina? I am not trying to create a ‘trauma olympics,’ but I am flabbergasted by the lack of national coverage in the media. Perhaps this tragedy doesn’t fit a certain agenda, but when it comes to human life, everyone should be banding together to assist our fellow Americans

I know tensions run high as election season approaches, and this year seems to be the most hostile one; at least any in my lifetime that I can remember. The media is the biggest problem in this country, and helps to foster the animosity and fuels the fire of the divide. Everything lately has been black or white, with zero room for any gray area. That’s just now how life works. I would like to think that the majority of sane people fall somewhere in the middle, with perhaps a little leeway to either the left or ride side of the spectrum. But if you look online these days, everything is so staunchly democratic or republic, so insanely liberal or conservative, so exclusionary and negative that no one can have a normal conversation without resorting to derogatory insults. If you vote one way, you are labeled a bigot. If you vote another way, you are labeled mentally ill. It’s insane. This is literally the exact reason our founding fathers strongly opposed only splitting into 2 political parties. Multiple factions should exist to help keep everyone in check and balance out everything as best as possible, so that not one specific or particular party feels ostracized or at risk of being put in danger. Be reasonable.

It saddens and sickens me to know that this tragedy can be potentially used as a political ploy to win over a certain subset of voters or to vilify another. We will lose sight of the most important facet of this tragedy, which is how we can best help people get their lives back on track and ensure their health and safety, and access to clean water and proper food. This is the time to band together, as united we are strong and divided we will fall. The media is so derisive in opposing sides, and gleefully creating a bigger divide so that one day the chasm between the two will be too great to ever hope to merge. It will not happen in one fell swoop, but over decades upon decades of chipping away at one another until the country splits into two fissures that can never come together again. We are at the early stages of an apocalyptic novel in which civilization is splintered, and right here, right now, is where it all begins. There is still time to stop this from happening and to come together to support your fellow human. We are all Americans; we all have a white bone skeletal structure, we all cry blue tears, and we all bleed red blood if it is spilled in this war of violence and hatred. Unite the colors of our flag again, and be kind to one another, and help the cities that have been devastated and its families and citizens, come hell or high water. We can be the change we wish to see in the world, and we can all make America the land of the united once again.