Proud
to be Canadian
As
like many people all over the World, my heart goes out to
everyone suffering in New Orleans. I couldn’t even
imagine such a tragedy happening here in Toronto and after
reading the headlines on Wednesday, August 31st,
2005, I couldn’t be more proud to be Canadian.
According
to CTV.ca website, the USAR team from Vancouver, known as
a specialized urban search and rescue team, headed down
to Louisiana to rescue survivors only a few days after Katrina
hit. Also, they were the first and only USAR team to be
deployed to the area.
This
makes me so pleased to know that I live in a country where
I can feel safe and know that I will be helped if ever in
danger. I’ve been watching CNN every day since the
disaster and at first I couldn’t understand why there
wasn’t help right away and I couldn’t understand
why people were dying.
These
were questions going through everyone’s mind and most
of the talking heads on the newscast were asking these very
same questions. However, their questions were more about
finding a fault.
Being
a recent journalism grad, this is what angered me the most
because many of the reporters were trying to get specialists
and doctors to point fingers. Why point fingers now, when
there is still so much help to give.
If
I was down there I would do my job and get the story, but
I’d be helping more than anything. I wouldn’t
be bothering doctors for ten minutes at a time while people
were dying. And I know because I’ve heard it so many
times before that’s what you have to do as a journalist.
You have to get the story to let people know what’s
going on, but at the same time couldn’t they be helping.
For
example, many people in the New Orleans have no telephones
or internet. Couldn’t the reporter with a camera have
let some of the people say there names or let their family
members know they were okay by getting on television? I
don’t know, but it could have been useful.
Maybe
I just have to stop watching CNN because from time to time
when I have watched it in the past their reporters have
pissed me off and I have felt like I wasn’t getting
the full story.
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dawn@shebytches.com
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