Edited by: Jina Aryaan
There is so much pain and suffering in our world. Much of it is manmade, but often there are natural disasters that cause catastrophic damage to mankind. The main natural disaster that is plaguing the media at the moment is Hurricane Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey is a category four storm/ hurricane that hit The United States (in the Texas area) on the 25th of August 2017. It was the first category four storm to hit the US Hurricane Charley in 2004 (although more people are connecting it to Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005, but in a different area). The death toll as of now is at least nine people, but with probably more to come. This hurricane has left hundreds of thousands of people stranded without homes and without their belongings. Millions of dollars’ worth of property damage has been done to the city of Houston and the surrounding areas, which will be incredibly difficult to replace once the hurricane subsides. The big problem is that many of the oil refineries for the US are in Texas and have been massively damaged by the hurricane, making the area unhealthy to breathe and making the floodwater even more contaminated than it already has. Not to mention, it has drastically impacted the US economy. For more contextual information, the New York Times has published as sort of FAQ for what is happening down there.
Fortunately, there have been some amazing people who are making use of their resources to help the citizens of Houston affected by this natural disaster. Two examples of this are: mattress shop owner, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, who opened up the doors to his stores to allow some displaced persons to use them as refugee shelters; and, the rescue workers who rescued people from a Dickinson assisted living community.
However, during this time of trial where we can only thrive through unity and collective action, there still remain some powerful individuals and corporations that choose to remain indifferent, or worst, decide to profit from such misfortune, despite their power to make resourceful contributions to a society in crisis.
A perfect example of this is would be multimillionaire televangelist Joel Osteen. He operates a suspicious business of televangelism, which is often seen as preying on people’s existential doubt in order to profit from it, and is the owner of one of the largest churches in the United States. A megachurch by the name of ‘Lakewood Church’. This church is in the heart of Houston and can house up to 16 800 people. One would think that this church would be the perfect shelter for people who have been displaced by the hurricane, particularly because the building was not flooded and so could be used to benefit the citizens in need of severe help. However, the building was not opened until Joel Osteen received national criticism.
Another example of such indifference can be seen in the inhumane acts of a Best Buy in Houston, which was selling cases of water for almost double their price, at $42. In the photos that went viral which made this story come to light, one can see that the printed sign is not by regular Best Buy standards, which means that someone must have done it of their own accord to profit off other people’s misfortune.
The least example of this is a story that comes from Twitter. A blogger by the name of Matt Walsh tweeted out a photo of a man carrying a woman to safety with the caption: “Woman cradles and protects child. Man carries and protects both. This is how it ought to be, despite what your gender studies professor says”. Now, this provocative and highly bigoted statement obviously caused outrage and sparked a massive online debate. Putting aside what the tweet says, using a terrible tragedy to enforce one’s personal agenda is one of the most despicable things a person can do. However, this story has a happy ending. People saw what he was trying to do, and decided to do what the internet always does: meme it. They took the caption “This is how it ought to be, despite what your gender studies professor says” and added it to ridiculous photos.
Hurricane Harvey is a catastrophic event that has really affected the lives of many, and it has really brought out the best and worst in people, as crises tend to do. The events are still progressing, so this data may be out of date, but the point this article is trying to make still stands. Don’t be mean, just make memes.