The trailer played when I saw Anna Karenina and then again when I saw Perks of Being a Wallflower, and both times elicited a visceral reaction of disgust from me, like seeing a cockroach or getting a big whiff of garbage truck while I'm walking to work. The words that flash across the screen during the trailer are as follows: "In 2004...tragedy struck southeast Asia...This is one family's true story of survival."
...Note that the entire premise of the film has been established now that we are 47 seconds into the trailer, and we. have. yet. to. see. a. southeast. Asian. person. Because OBVIOUSLY the ONLY possible way to make a movie about the tsunami that will do well in an American market is to whitewash it so completely that the 75,000+ Southeast Asian people who died in this tragedy aren't even mentioned, so that the focus of the film is rather a British family who was vacationing at the time, because then it's like this could happen to you, American moviegoer who is presumed to be white and wealthy enough for vacationing in Southeast Asia to be a feasible possibility in your life. Because Southeast Asians aren't people you can relate to, obviously. Their deaths are a statistic--this British family's true story of survival is an emotional triumph!
If you can stomach watching the rest of the trailer, you see that we finally see people of color at a minute and 28 seconds in! The movie is set in Southeast Asia and it took 60% of the trailer before we saw a person of color. Okay. It's actually a group of people of color. What are they going to do? Oooh look, it's as if they've been magically conjured to save the poor injured white woman, who will weep and profess her thankfulness. Oh, they're gone so quickly, appearing only for a few seconds. Wait...we never see them again? BUT I THOUGHT THIS MOVIE WAS ABOUT A TRAGEDY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.
To paraphrase the quote at the end of the trailer, "Nothing is more powerful than the human spirit people's sympathy for unsuspecting White people."
I don't think any president is ever really prepared for a natural disaster to ravage the country, but Obama has handled Sandy with nothing but speed and grace.
I'm sure that none of us need a refresher on the atrocious nature in which the Bush administration refused to deal with Katrina, but just in case, let us not forget that it took Bush four days to allocate any relief funding, four days in which people were stranded on the roofs of their homes without food, water, shelter, or medical attention, if they were lucky enough to still need such basic amenities. Let us not forget that during those four days, Bush was vacationing in Texas and then he flew over Katrina in Air Force One on his way back to DC, presumably so he could see the damage everyone was making such a fuss about for himself. Let us not forget that Dick Cheney literally tore power crews away from restoring power at two hospitals in New Orleans to make sure that the pipeline that carries gas from Texas to the Northeast wasn't interfered with--a wonderful display of federal priorities, if you ask me. Let us not forget that then-Secretary-of-State Condoleezza Rice went to see Spamalot on Broadway the night Katrina hit and spent the majority of the following day shopping in Manhattan. Let us not forget the one time I agreed with any public statement Kanye West made.
Character isn't created during moments of crisis--it is revealed. The things that actually matter and don't matter to our leaders become painfully clear. And I don't know about you, but I want to be secure in knowing that the people who are on the ground being affected by a crisis are at the top of our leaders' priority lists.
Enter Barack Obama. Enter "Superstorm Sandy," as she has come to be known, in the final days of his campaigning, another hurricane that hit this country worse than we were expecting. Cut to Barack personally calling Cory Booker, mayor of Newark and one of my favorite politicians in the history of ever, at 12:30 in the morning to talk with him about the crisis when the entire city of Newark lost power.
Cut to Barack jumping in on a conference call with energy executives on Tuesday to remind them that "restoring power to the millions of Americans who lost electricity during Sandy is a top priority." Cut to Barack putting aside the party line and teaming up with Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie to do on-the-ground touring of the destruction in New Jersey, of him holding distraught victims of the storm in his arms.
I've heard there are people in New York criticizing Obama for how long it's taking for Manhattan to get back together, but I think New York as a city--especially Manhattan--has enough resources to get itself back together. I'm glad to see Obama in middle-of-nowhere small-town New Jersey where people are expected to be without power for weeks. What does him calling Booker or talking to the energy execs really do, some critics ask. Well, I can tell you what it does for me, someone lucky enough to be in the path of the storm but not really damaged by it--ironic as this may be, it gives me hope. It makes me feel safe. There is literally no way you can argue right now that Obama doesn't care about regular people living their everyday regular lives in everyday regular places. We matter to this man. We don't matter to the party that is criticizing him for responding too early, as if help has a strict timeline that starts with wait-and-see.
My vote for Obama-Biden is already in the mail. Today is the last day for early voting most places around the country, so I suggest you put your shoes on, grab your ID/voter registration card, and get thee to the polls. Regular everyday people are counting on you.
There's a lot of things I crossed off my hurricane supply list: 9-volt battery for my alarm clock that has a radio, brightly colored duct tape to make safety Xs on the windows, bread, non-perishables like granola bars, chips, crackers, candy, all the bottles of water in all the world. All check. There are flashlights on every floor. I gathered every candle (I think there are almost 40) in my house and piled them on my mom's dresser, along with a lighter and two half-empty giant boxes of matches. We brought in all the random crap from the backyard and put it in the basement. I have all the board games gathered in the living room, my GRE prep book spread out on the dining room table, two fun books to read next to it when I need a break. My cell phone and MP3 player are fully charged. I will fill one of the two bathtubs with water tomorrow afternoon in case we lose water pressure.
...Maya Reid don't play. I am generally a rather anxious person, and when NJ is facing a land-hit by a hurricane for the first time in 108 years, I feel like it's the day before we found out about college admissions all over again. My stomach is in KNOTS. I'm as prepared as I can be, I know. There's nothing else I can do, I know.
But my grandmother and my mom's ex I'm still in I-want-you-to-be-my-daddy with live in mandatory evacuation zones and aren't leaving. *increases worry* My mom is already having some fairly serious car trouble, so the possibility of flooding could do us in transportation-wise. *increases worry* There's a leaky window in my mom's bedroom and our roof has problems from time to time. *increases worry* My area is just entirely unprepared for something like this. *increases worry*
I read a news article earlier saying Atlantic City Electric is warning people to prepare for power outages that could last for days. *increases worry*
Some official from Cape May County has said on the news [this is a paraphrase], "To all the people ignoring the evacuation, who want to try to ride it out, this is what you need to do. Get an index card, write your name, address, SSN, next of kin, and next of kin's phone number on it, and put it in the bottom of your shoe. We'll need it to identify your body." *increases worry*
Governor Christie said on the news this evening, "Get the hell off the beach." That's a direct quote. *increases worry*
And see, there's one thing on my emergency preparedness list that I can't get [well, okay, one thing in addition to a backup generator, a gas stove instead of the electric one we have, and a landline telephone]...someone to cuddle with me during the whole thing. [My family isn't a touchy-feely people. They give me major side-eye when I even want hugs.] I want to wear the necklace my best friend got me for my 16th birthday because it makes me feel safe. I want to wrap myself in the quilt my grandmother altered for me. And I want someone's arms around me, want them so bad it hurts. But I will settle for my two teddy bears from my father, one given to me the day after I was born, and the second given to me the day I graduated from high school. I know it's stupid to think this stuff will protect me, but...I'm a silly sentimental woman most of the time.
And maybe this isn't the most eloquent way to say it, but I'm scared SHITLESS.
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UPDATE: GREG IS COMING HERE TO SURVIVE THE STORM. IRENE, YOU HAVE MADE MY LIFE WONDERFUL.
