d.: I would like to take a break from the storyline today, and just give an opinion. As many of you may be aware, I live in Southeast Texas, which was on the “dirty” side of Hurricane Beryl. This storm knocked out power for over one million people in this area, many of whom still don’t have power, and may not have it restored until next week. That is sad, but the “body count” for this storm was low, thankfully. (Yes, those of you that are not from the Gulf Coast region, a Cat. 1 hurricane can be deadly).
At my age, I’ve worked with many people and a lot of them weren’t from this area (or even this country). I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is people moving down here from other parts of the country and being tasked with making decisions concerning weather patterns.
One of my old managers was from the Denver area. When Hurricane Chantel blew through Houston in 1989 as a Cat. 1 hurricane, he reasoned it couldn’t be as bad as a tornado and sent us all out to work. My friend who was raised in this area and I looked at each other in disbelief. We discussed what to do. I assumed that the hurricane could still turn and miss us, so I suggest that we listen intently to the news radio station as we worked. We both went out and were back two hours later, when our manager tried to send us home. We both refused. We were in a concrete building with an area with no windows, the safest place to be during a hurricane of any strength, we reasoned. We both stayed at work until the storm passed. The manager’s reasoning, though, was faulty. He didn’t want to pay us to stay at work when we were unable to perform our jobs. We both assured him that we weren’t trying to “ride the clock,” only survive the storm. That manager was transferred shortly after this incident. I then read in a periodical that was published by this national company that one of his drivers was involved in a fatality accident because he was in too much of a hurry and ran a stop sign.
I don’t know if that manager still has a job or not, but that isn’t my point. The point is that, if you don’t know anything about a situation, you should listen to those who do. That can save time, money, and, in some instances, lives. I won’t go into the other situation that I’ve recently dealt with relating to this storm other than to say that, if your institution is national or even global, paying close attention to national and world affairs is a good idea.
Now, to my point. Texas is going to be delayed in getting federal relief money because the proper paperwork wasn’t filed in a timely fashion. The governor is in Asia, and the president is blaming him. He’s blaming the president because he was already aware of the situation and didn’t start doing the paperwork before the storm hit, knowing that it would do a lot of damage.
My opinion is that, if politicians would stop pointing fingers and blaming others, the world would be a better place. My philosophy is that I won’t tell you what I can’t do, but what I can. If more people would try this approach, maybe more things would get done more quickly.
Cal.E. and I will be back tomorrow with another humorous (or silly) episode of Cal.E.’s Korner, but today, this has been d.c. scot with one man’s (correct) opinion.
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