Shortly after I posted the previous message, I spotted a Breaking News headline on a news site. A Metrolink commuter train out in Chatsworth collided (some are saying head-on) with a freight train, making for an ugly scene, several deaths and quite a few injuries. All the local channels are broadcasting live from out there, grabbing worried relatives of those who were on the Metrolink and asking them to share their ordeal with the home audience. That's not literally what they're requesting but it's what it comes down to.
It's horrible, simply horrible. I mean the train wreck, not the news coverage…though the news coverage isn't helping a whole lot. Reporters: We don't need to see the pain of people who've lost or fear they may lose loved ones. We need to know what happened, how it happened, what it means, how to prevent it from happening again, if anything can be done to minimize the damage…things like that.
(When I started typing this, they were saying four dead. Now it's five and they're hinting that's not the end of this.)
We waste so many of our resources in this country — time and money. Even if you think the Iraq War is a noble effort that will accomplish something, you oughta be horrified at the billions of dollars that have simply vanished. Someone pocketed it and they're going to get away with it. No one will ever look for that money. That's cash we could have spent in this country to alleviate pain and suffering…to shore up levees in hurricane-prone areas and have better disaster preparation…to do a better job of preventing accidents. (No one knows what caused the train wreck but there must have been something that could have been done.)
Sorry this is so serious-sounding but if you're watching what I'm seeing on my TV right now — a train wreck intercut with warnings of Hurricane Ike — you understand. And the death toll now stands at "six and expected to go much higher."