Disaster Fatigue

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, President Bush appealed to Americans to give support to despite what he called, "Disaster Fatigue."

Bush was referring to natural disasters. Ike was the third major hurricane landfall this year behind Faye and Gustav. And Katrina will haunt the Gulf Coast until something worse makes us forget about it.

Similar to how the Summer Hurricanes made us forget that a 100-year flood gripped the Midwest for the entire month of June (15 years after the 100-year flood of 1993).

Or how what Alan Greenspan called the "Once-in-a-century Credit Tsunami" has made us forget about the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Or how rising commodity and gas prices and falling 401K plans and job security has made us forget about the 57" Plasma Television at Best Buy.

Storms are bad. 100 year storms are worse. Multiple 100 year storms, both natural and man made--converging at once--is now reality.

We know that storms hit throughout life: Rivers Flood. Levees Break. Stock Markets Crash. Planes Fly Into Buildings. Loved ones die.

Everyone reacts in their own way to disaster, but Doctors point out symptomatic similarities. Shock. Fatigue. Depressed mood. Anxiety.

Lehman Brothers had an office on the 80th floor of the World Trade Center. How many friends were lost. How did that effect the lives of those who survived?

In the days after 9/11, President Bush told Americans to go shopping.

Dull the pain of a nation with retail therapy. Go buy something.

Buy it on credit.

Now Bush says, "Wall Street got drunk".

Is it more accurate to say, "America is a drunk"?

If you get drunk one night, you blackout, throw up, have a hang over and hope you didn't do anything too stupid.

When you are an alcoholic, you've been at it for years. There is a psychological and physiological addiction in place. A disease. A lifelong battle of recovery. One day at a time. And then, there is the hereditary risk that you may pass the disease on to future generations.

Time for the long look in the mirror.