The Changelog

I've been in Charlotte, NC for a conference over the past couple of days. A lot of companies provide comment cards for people, so while I was bored in an airport, I decided I would fill out a few of them with some honest comments. Here are some selected pieces of things I wrote on comment cards.

Hilton University Place, Charlotte, NC

"When the shower above us was in use, water leaked into our bathtub. The bathroom ceiling had long-term damage -- this has obviously gone on awhile.

Bits of ceiling also dropped into the tub during our stay."

I got a picture of this using the camera on Terah's Clie:



Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

"No wireless Internet in Concourse C, nor any indication of it being available elsewhere."

"As I was filling out this survey, a waiting passenger collapsed nearby. An airport employee radioed for medical assistance, but it took a LONG time to arrive. Employees on the scene didn't check the man's condition or attempt CPR, and generally seemed to have no idea what to do. 15 minutes or more for help to arrive."

Charlotte, NC Airport

"Took almost an hour for luggage to begin arriving from our flight."

"No wireless Internet."

Airtran Airways

"Good fares."

"Online checkin is nice."

"The free XM is great, but it wasn't working on some of our flights, and wasn't installed on others."

Today we got to see the first ever live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from Kansas, at the Kansas State fair.

It was great to see the show in person (second time for me; I also saw it at Purdue back in 2001). All the jokes about Kansas were fun, too. And they even recovered fine when -- I kid you not -- the wind at the grandstand blew all their music, notes, and scripts away. Twice.

Cliff, if you were listening, the bit about the bloggers for some reason made me think of you ;-)

I'd like to close this post with this, posted by NotInKansasAnymore to the discussion board for tonight's broadcast:

You're a true Kansan if:

1. You no longer associate bridges or rivers with water.

2. You have never met any celebrities (Bob Dole isn't a celebrity; he's your neighbor.)

3. You know the meaning of Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

4 Your closest neighbor is more than a mile away and you can still see him from your front porch.

5. You can properly pronounce Salina, Basehor, Cimmaron, Schoenchen, Kechi and Osawatomie.

6. Going on vacation means going to Hutch to the fair or to Abilene to Ike's museum.

7. A traffic jam involves two cars staring each other down at a four-way stop, each determined to be the most polite and let the other go first.

8. A Mercedes Benz is not a status symbol. A Ford F10 4x4 is. (Except in Johnson County)

9. You discover that in July it takes only 2 fingers to drive your car.

10. The terms Sooners and Huskers cause hairs on the back of your neck to stand up straight and your blood pressure to rise.

11 You have owned at least one belt buckle bigger than your fist.

12. You think people who complain about the wind and weather in their states are SISSIES!

13. You are not surprised to find movie rentals, ammunition and bait all in the same store.

14. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door but by the availability of shade.

15. You have been asked, "Where is Toto" more than once.

16. You had at least one summer job that was bucking bales or custom cutting.

17. More than once you've made a beer run to another state.

18. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned to multiply.

19. Your school classes have been canceled because of the cold.

20. You know in your heart that K-State can beat Oklahoma in football.

21. Traffic congestion is ten cars waiting to pass a combine on the highway.

22. You have had to switch from heat to A/C in the same day.

23. You know everything goes better with Ranch.

24. Your school classes have been canceled because of the heat.

25. You have ridden the school bus for more than an hour each way.

26. In August, you break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:00 a.m.

27. You instantly know someone is from Johnson County when they call everything west of Topeka... "Western" Kansas.

28. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.

29. You know the real way to pronounce the name of the river... arKANSAS.

30. You think the opening day of pheasant season is a national holiday.

31. "Vacation" means going to Kansas City or Wichita for the weekend.

32. You measure distance in hours.

33. You know several people who have hit more than one deer.

34. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.

35. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

36 You think of the major food groups as beer, beef and beans.

37. You carry jumper cables in your car and make sure your better half knows how to use them.

38. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

39. You know the four seasons as: summer, road construction, still summer, winter.

40. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.

41. You lock the doors to your truck but leave the windows rolled down.

42. You call sodas just plain ol' "Pop"!!

43. FINALLY..... you are 100% Kansan if........... You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your friends from Kansas.

Take a look at this excellent post from Rhodent, full of first-hand hurricane experience. Lots of good points there.

But I'm going to disagree with two ;-)

First, I think that we've seen colossal failures at all levels of government. Congress should have appropriated the money to strengthen the levees years ago, when New Orleans officials first asked for it. The local authorities should have provided transportation out for people. The federal authorities should have been better positioned to help, and should have had more people on the ground (or at least dropping food from the air) sooner. There's no excuse for the feds saying they can't get food in when private groups could, or for saying they didn't know anybody was in the convention center when it had been on the news for days. There's also no excuse for the Louisiana emergency management services relying on cellphones for communication in a disaster.

Second, I think she's right to say that the "blame game" (fingerpointing) is terrible. But I think that accountability is vital. The disaster is still in progress and lives are still at stake. If relief efforts are being so poorly managed that they are endangering people or prolonging suffering, then we need to remove these poor managers and replace them with good ones immediately. This *is* the time to see if the government is responding well and to do something about it if not. Not 6 months later when it won't make as much difference to victims of the current disaster. When you see a problem, you should respond to it.