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Colorado Blizzard...
Government is not Blamed
Coloradoans are unique in adapting to and coping with adversity, a friend of mine who lives in Germany wrote me the other day. "I well remember the Blizzard of 1997 when everything came to a standstill and I had nearly 4 feet of snow in my monstrous driveway. All the neighbors helped each other to clear the snow. The ladies that were able to help and those that couldn't provided hot beverages to keep us going. Once we got the driveways cleared, those of us who had AWD cars used them to pat down the snow on the road in our cul-de-sac circle since the city could not keep up with clearing the roads. There was true concern about each other's well being. This is why I love Colorado.
Here, last year when we were in snow up to our armpits, our neighbors, all between 15 and 20 years younger than I, shoveled much of their snow into my driveway and my parking spaces."
My friend sent me the following timeless article which appeared in a Colorado newspaper with the above title.
Weather Bulletin - Colorado
This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of Jefferson County after a snowstorm.
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic
event; may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" ---
with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH
that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds
of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of
communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
> FEMA did nothing.
> No one howled for the government.
> No one blamed the government.
> No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
> Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
> Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
> Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
> CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm.
>
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
> No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
> No one looted.
> Nobody - I mean Nobody, demanded the government do something.
> Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
> No Larry King, No Bill O'Reilly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No
> Geraldo Rivera, No Sean Penn, No Barbara Streisand, No Hollywood types to be found.
> Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
> Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
> The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
> Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
> Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
> We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
> We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die."
> We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 40 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate. It does seem that way, at least to me.
Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does not owe you a living.
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