Tuesday, January 11, 2005

The Ball State Daily News - BEWILDERED SOCIETY: 'Ice Storm 2005' caused minor issues in grand scheme

"Do you have power?"

Quite possibly the most commonly heard phrase in Indiana over the last five days.

That is, next to, "They haven't fired Mike Davis yet?"

As Muncie and any town, city or ant colony within earshot began to climb out of the arctic tundra this past weekend, we started to see just how badly Mother Nature had backhanded East Central Indiana.

Many of us, at one point or another, have called Muncie "Hell." Well, I guess you could say it finally froze over.

As such, "Ice Storm 2005" (us media personnel are working on catchier names) left roughly 115,000 people in the dark for some period of time this past week. The snapping power lines and exploding transformers put together a blue-colored fireworks show across the sky Wednesday night. When the brownouts turned to blackouts, residents and students were forced to light up candles, throw on the extra blankets and swap electric refrigerators for coolers full of snow.

Indeed, primitive life is a modern day pain in the ass.

And yet, our own personal struggles often overshadow that of others whose warrant more attention. It's natural. After all, we are all human.

Yet, for students who thought of this "natural disaster" as a horrendous hassle, just consider what its like for the ungodly number of victims that have suffered through the aftermath of the Christmas Day tsunami.

Not having power just plain... sucks. In our wired (err, now wireless) culture, we rely on electricity more than we realize. But if we think that the lack of power is worth being horribly upset over, we truly cannot comprehend what those victims are dealing with.

It will take years for the trees on this campus to resume their full posture and splendor, a sight that existed at this time just one week ago. However, when put in comparison to the tsunami, we should be thanking every lucky star, branch and power line that we still have trees.

More importantly, we should be pleased that there have been no fatalities. Even in the big scheme of things, the amount of property damage and number of personal injuries are considerably low. The same cannot be said for those living along those coastal areas, which are now in state of unbelievable disarray, with not only mementos and homes, but lives that can never, ever be replaced.

This is not at all to say that we have tried to compare ourselves to those victims overseas. However, their situation should make us realize how lucky we are.

We have power now.

We have heat, as well.

We have fresh food and clean water.

We have our friends and family.

That's a lot more than those still rising number of victims can say. For that, we should be thankful, and for them, we owe our deepest sympathy.

Our American soldiers, Red Cross volunteers and other International aid organizations deserve our emotional and monetary thanks for helping on our behalf. They are there, so we can be here.

And so, for those of us who had thought it, Hell never did freeze over.

Not here, at least.

#posted by Dave 3:09:00 AM