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God. My friends are so ******** stupid. They drink and get cought. Now, due to some stuff I don't want to say, or rather makes me sad to explain, two of them are looking at time in jail and my close friend Sarah is being sent up to Sacremento because she was involved. That makes me so sad beyond most things...ohh well. I'm angry...but then I'm not... *Sigh*

I should have went with them. cry

*huggles* I can understand your desire to help them and be with them. It was their choice.. and if they were so far gone as to get caught then they would have probably not listened to you anyway. The situation might have escalated. It stinks that it happened. But people have to learn. Some of my brother's friends were skateboarding in the strip mall. he skateboarded behind it. His friends got caught but they were under 18. if he had gone with them he would have gone to jail. If you were there with your friends then you might have gone too.
They will be alright, b/c if they are tried as minors then they are just in juvie. that's better than the main jail.

[ Message temporarily off-line ]

Ooh, I'd take Japanese lessons from you.

Heck, I'd take any kinda lessons from you... wink

Alright, just lemme go get the thread from GD. in the mean time...I'll post this rant.

Okay, after seeing both hurricane threads on this forums and Foamy's rant, I've had enough. I cannot stand what the hell has happened to people these days. Yeah, talking about it won't help, but you know what? I - Don't - Care. I'm angry at how heartless we've become, and I - Need - To b***h.

First off, the news people. Yeah there are flocks of reporters there, and there reporting about peoples relatives dying and people that are in the shelters and have lost everything, and we see a second or so of footage of firefighters trying to help these people,so why are they doing nothing to help them? Why are they tallying off how many have died and not actually trying to bring comfort to these damn people? Why are they asking analysts how many have died or how many more are dying and not doing what they can to help? Why are they taping citizens of the town that has just been hit looting stores and depriving the people that do need the food of it?

And about those 'charities'...
Why are they skimming money off of the peoples donations and stuffing it in their own pockets? Why are they giving these people that need all this the damn short end of the stick? These people have hit with a hurricane that is one of the worst in its history, and their giving them the bare minimum to survive, stuffing the "excess" into their pockets. When did lining their pockets become more important than putting food into the victims' bellies?

And onto the issue of global warming...
The ocean waters are becoming warmer and warmer, and this is breeding
more fertile conditions for even more hurricanes like Katrina to happen, hell, for all we know, the next one could make Katrina look like a damn gust of wind. Maybe now those car comapnies will listen and implement those hybrid cars into the market? Maybe now they'll use alternate sources of fuel? Maybe now they won't let some of those gas guzzlers hit (and leave) the showfloor? I'd doubt it, though. They're not cool; they're not hip; they're not it. So what if it may cause even better conditions for more hurrcanes in occur? At least they're making money, and in the end, thats all that matters, right?

It's not like people even care anymore these days. A homeless guy asks for some change, and what do they do? They say, "Get away from me, you freak." What do people do when they see the waters warm and more hurricanes occur because of it? Go out and buy a Navigator, "Because its cool"What does someone do when theres a whole abandoned store of food and there are people that need it? Loots it and keep it for them damn selves, thats what.

And on top of that, this didn't just hit any ordinary city. This hit New Orleans, The Big Easy, where millions upon millions once called home. In one fatal swoop, Mother Nature turned this once great city into a real-life Atlantis. People all across the city have made a run to their rooftops to sit and wait for their heroes to fly in and whisk them away from the destruction and devastation this storm has left. All those that have made a temporary home in the Superdome are left stranded on that super structure that now, thanks to the storm, has become something like a desert island for them, surrrounded by polluted water as far as they can see. Just goes to show that mother Nature can take on anyone and anything that challenges it and win with a flourish, giving and taking its most precious resources in an instant.

Which brings me to my next point: Gas.
If this is what its like when a few refineries are destroyed, what will happen when we begin to run out? Lines going for hours and hours to get Gas that costs $6+ a gallon. Prices in some of our richer foods and clothing skyrocketing to unheard of prices. Basic needs becoming like water in the desert. What will become of us when the resource we depend on most dries up and poof, its gone? Maybe then we will realize what is really important in our lives.

Which brings me to my final point, family, one of the most precious things that many of these victims *which may include some of the forumites...* have lost to Katrina. It is in my experience that these people have given much to them and have helped them. As i have learned from my time comforting others in another forum, as long as you keep their memory alive in their heart and their spirit alive through kindness and compassion toward others, they're memory will never truly fade away. A contribution to a reputable charity such as Red Cross; Helping others in your local homeless shelter or blood drive, or even giving the change in your pocket to a nearby homeless man or Salvation Army bucket. Just know that when you do these acts, you are keeping their spirit alive in your heart and alive in others, and thier purpose will have been served in thie world, and really, isn't that all we want for them and for ourselves? Some much needed closure? To know that they have affected others in a positive way? To know that they did not die in vain? I know thats what i would want.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the end of my rant. I hope it wasn't too pointless ^_^

-Koiyuki

You know, I'm always surprised at this. My group of islands is just below the states. We get hit every hurricane season (I think it starts from May, but I know it's all the way to November) by at least thirteen storms and hurricanes a year. And yet, even though we're a "less advanced culture" we don't get hit as hard. Yes, there are floods, destruction and stuff, but we actually move before hand, we act before-during-after the incident. You'd think that when half a state is actually below sea-level, they'd wise up... Why didn't they move with other family in higher ground? Why are so many people (I'm talking about all the states that are liable to get hit by hurricanes) unprepared? I'll tell you: lack of education.

Whenver we puertorricans achieve "two-and-a-half foot devils" status, we are thouroughly educated that Hurricanes aren't bad, they are disastrous. Every single one, wether it be a storm, a category 1 or category 5, they have the capacity to ******** somebody up bad. samsonite can help me out on this, if she was raised in the island, she knows what I say is true.

Why is such a prosperous place like Florida unprepared? Don't they have a friggin' hurricane watch system? (Ironically, Puerto Rico gets weather information from Florida, one of the best "weather watch" satellites in the world) This might come off as a we're-better-than-you, but it's not. It's actually a "Why the hell are we better prepared if you have better resources to do so?" Sometimes, I wonder how come this didn't happen earlier. In Puerto Rico, a hurricane whose name I can't remember split the island in half. literally. It destroyed most of the island, and you could actually see, in satellite images, the path it took. After that, people took them even more seriously than they did before. If you ask me, I don't like that it happened, it shouldn't have happened, but it did, and the U.S. better start to take hurricanes and tropical storms seriously, or they might have another incident like this on their hands. This is just the first half of the year. My message to the states? Welcome to Hurricane Season.

Aww...*hugs, then gropes*