The Natural Disaster I Can’t Ignore

Cedar Rapids Iowa was hit by winds faster than a hundred miles an hour and completely interrupted life for everyone. Crisis like the corona virus and this power blackout do not form faults in our society but make the faults that we already knew about worse. But before we get into how that affects people and who am I to talk about it. Let’s talk about privilege.

Privilege or luck. So often privilege is used as a conversation ended. But let’s have a conversation about privilege. Privilege is the state of not being minoritized. Aph ko describes minoritization like a backpack. And for everything that you are not a rich, straight, attractive, thin white, educated, able-bodied man a weight is put into that bag and it makes everything harder.

Poor, white, uneducated, women. Get three stones. Black, lesbians who went to Harvard get stones or lack privilege but not nearly as much as every other black lesbien.

Not all of these factors are equal or equivalent. It is a way of thinking about privilege. What I like most about it is that it makes room for class. That wealth is very important when we get to real do-what-you-want globe trotting kind of rich.

Someone can do a lot with wealth in this country. Donald Trump is fat and ugly but he looks like a rich man and seems successful and what money he does has makes up for how fat and ugly he is. He is lucky that nice isn’t on that list because he is a selfish asshole.

This is privilege. Just because police don’t come after you, just because you haven’t been mugged. Just because you are white. Does not mean you cannot criticize the police. We don’t even have to really talk about privilege anymore. We do have to be aware that the whitest and straightest voices are not the ones overcoming weight to be heard.

I am sitting writing this at five in the morning after (let me do some math 48 and 24 is 72 minus 7) 65 hours of having no power in the city of Cedar Rapids Iowa. My partner and I have done our best to take care of ourselves. We had a small supply of nonperishable foods and we ate what we could from the fridge before it went bad.

On Monday August 10th hurricane force winds ripped through our city. Hundreds of trees were knocked over and I’m willing to bet over a hundred powerlines, too. Thousands of branches blocked out streets and several dozen homes and apartment buildings fell apart around people.

The power outage has also taken down the cell signal. If I didn’t have to worry about my phone having charge, then I would be looking for a signal.

All of my neighbors have been busy. Repairing fences, cutting large branches and even fallen trees. It has been two days of work. There isn’t a single store open in the city except for a grocery store and a farm equipment store that had backup generators. The trees were cleared by my neighbors.

At their roots governments are a group of people, remember. It is not a failure of government as in the concept that the people cleaned up the streets. It is a result of informal cooperation that the work has been done.

I listened to the radio several times but no word from the city came through. The city bulletins went through on a website. The website that I didn’t have cell signal, let alone, cell internet to see. I don’t even know if my cable internet is still intact because the power is still out.

It is thanks to the generosity of my neighbors that had a friend out of town with a generator that we were able to save the frozen food in our fridge and that I am able to charge my laptop and write this now. If I want to post it, I might have to drive forty minutes north and go somewhere with wifi, which is also the only guaranteed way to get gas. Which is exactly what my neighbors are doing to have the gas to fill the generators.

No word from the city on how long this will take. No estimates. And especially none where anyone can read them.

I had internet for my cell phone for an hour. I put out a single desperate tweet letting people know we were in trouble. People are suffering here. I also went to the website that did have news from the city. Apparently, there was a curfew the last two nights. Who knew? I haven’t seen a cop in days but I’m glad his job is to still be an asshole. Fuck the police. They could be used to communicate with local people. Spread news. I hear fire trucks a few times a day, so guys with guns probably tagged along with them for no reason. An organized community force of people could really help safety, too bad we gave them guns and trained them to be useless assholes.

I’m lucky that I didn’t need the police because they didn’t come and I have no way of calling them. I’m also luck that I am a color that does not instently make me a suspect of impromptu target practice.

I recagnise I am lucky to have a generator to be able to write on my laptop. Now the question is what I do with this time and this advantage. There was a goddamned natural disaster. A hurricane in the middle of the country that stuck with barely ten minutes notice. One that convienently leaves the victums voiceless and powerless.
I didn’t think to check with my friends in appartments after the storm hit. My friend had her appartment fall apart around her. I had no way of knowing or contacting her until I had twitter back on my phone for those twenty minutes. No one is working and everyone has expenses from this disaster. I have seen zero state or federal aid coming in.

At time of writing Cedar Rapids needs help but Cedar rapids needed help all along. Every city, town, and village in America needs help. We need housing for everyone. Medicare for all. Food for all. A minimum wage that is a living wage. Police that serve the people instead of murdering them and their pets. An enforcement of a base standard of living is neccessary and humane. If people need money to live, give them money don’t ask how much they own. This city needs money to repair and by city I mean it’s people. Everyone.

At time of posting at a friends house, 80% of Cedar Rapids doesn’t have power, more than four stores are open, major interesctions completely shut down, and it has been 120 hours sense the power went out.