November 1, 2012

"In South Beach, Staten Island, resident Grace Johnson clenched her fists and waved her arms in the air..."

"... as she ran toward a college student from Queens who had come to see the damage and stood across the street taking photos."
"Jesus Christ, will you stop please," she shouted, her eyes welling and voice cracking with emotion. "Why don't you come over here and help sweep… instead of just looking at us."

26 comments:

netmarcos said...

And she makes a good point.

rhhardin said...

PMS probably.

Anonymous said...

Why should this kid help? It's the government's job to take care of her.

Because, as Barney Frank likes to say, government is what we do when we do thing together.

In complete emotional isolation from each other.

Larry J said...

le said...
Why should this kid help? It's the government's job to take care of her.

Because, as Barney Frank likes to say, government is what we do when we do thing together.


Or, as that ad during the DNC convention said, "Government is the one thing we all belong to."

Skipper said...

Tell that to a so-called reporter.

KCFleming said...

"Too many cameras and not enough food;
'Cause this is what we've seen


How can you say that you're not responsible?
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction, what should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity
"

Driven to Tears

wyo sis said...

Spectator society.

lemondog said...

Stress...despair.

Who knows what she has lost.

chuck said...

After the 1900 Galveston hurricane idle photographers were shot like stray dogs.

Anonymous said...

I guess you could say the same thing to cars that slow down passing an accident. Not a person reading this blog hasn't done that. It's (for better or worse) just human nature. Last hurricane I went through here in the Sunshine State, I grabbed my camera and documented the destruction wrought by the gods.

Fprawl said...


NEWSCHIEF - When three hurricanes crossed over Polk County (FL) in less than two months in 2004, beginning with Charley August 12, 2004, experts believed then it was the first time in history that one county had been hit by three major hurricanes in one season."

The dog chased squirrels that ran through the rafters of my mom's drywall-less house for 8 months until some Methodists from Iowa put a new roof on.

The news cameras went away in 3 days in Polk county (I-4 Corridor for you election watchers).


Maybe more Iowa Methodists will show up in NY.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"Why don't you come over here and help sweep… instead of just looking at us."

Am I my brother's sweeper?

Carnifex said...

I've caught myself spectating before. I think it's from watching too much tv. To my credit, I did catch it, and was the only one to offer help in each instance. A lot of people looked at me strangely after I did offer. My wife and I are at odds about a friend of ours. She's riddled with so many problems she isn't allowed to drive. So I or her niece take her to the grocery, the doctor etc. I also fix things in her apartment. My wife gets mad sometimes, but what am I supposed to do? You help when asked, and hopefully, you get help when you ask.

Methadras said...

This is no different than people who take the 8th world shit hole vacations and take pictures of how other people suffer with utterly debilitating poverty. Not help, just take pictures so they can go back to their SWPL enclaves and show people the pictures. I can see how this woman felt.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

I would add that if the person did pick up a broom and help, that they would take home a much more valuable and treasured thing than a photo. Do it out of selfishness, just aim higher. Nobody will know your real motivation.

Carol said...

cars that slow down passing an accident

Oh stop it. I am so tired of this canard. If a car is blocking a lane or even on the shoulder close to a lane, it's not safe to go whizzing by at full speed.

Michael said...

Carol: Even if the accident is on the other side of the median on an interstate highway?

TosaGuy said...

Were the photographs taken ironically?

furious_a said...

Disaster porn, like this.

michaele said...

The ins. payouts after a big natural disaster is, in a way, a redistribution of wealth but in a good way, thanks to capitalism.

ricpic said...

I'm always dreadfully embarrassed to be part of the slowdown of cars passing a highway accident, and it does happen even when the accident is on the other side of the highway. Actually embarrassed is too mild a word. Shame. It fills me with shame. I don't even care to understand why.

Big Mike said...

Once upon a time the woman wouldn't have had to ask, much less yell -- there'd be no spectators, just helpers. The nanny state has cost us something important. Probably something that we can't get back.

Amartel said...

It's is easy to point and pontificate.
That being said, we all do it. TV and internet facilitate the process.
That being said, consider not doing it in your own neighborhood!

bagoh20 said...

From Furious_a's link above

"Carter eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo, but he couldn’t enjoy it. “I’m really, really sorry I didn’t pick the child up,” he confided in a friend. Consumed with the violence he’d witnessed, and haunted by the questions as to the little girl’s fate, he committed suicide three months later."

I didn't know that he killed himself. That's a shame. He did the right thing by taking that photo, and it probably did a lot of good.

Unknown said...

I love SoBe! Spent a year studying abroad there, and I absolutely understand your sentiments about it feeling like a dream, and thinking normality is about to resume at any second!
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