Contemporary America.

For the last blog task, I'm not going to lie, I got a bit confused as to what to write about. Contemporary America is quite a broad subject, and I didn't really have a stepping stone to get myself started. I looked at the Tornado that has wiped out towns in Oklahoma.

I found a news article on the CNN website, which can be found here. This disaster is not uncommon in America, but the sheer intensity of the destruction and the death toll is quite terrible. The amount of severe weather in this area, which is attacking several states is hard to believe. You would think that being in America, there would be at least some sort of protocol that would allow damage like this to be contained. But then again, it is mother nature we are talking about, and there is no way to predict what she will do. The earthquake/tsunami that swept through Japan earlier this year was unprecedented and utterly destructive. Yet in a way the Japanese were prepared for an earthquake, with the national earthquake day they have each year to prepare their citizens for such an attack. Is it too hard to at least prepare the American people in this hurricane belt for such events?

I'm not blaming the United States government for not being ready, seeing as a Hurricane is very different to an Earthquake and you cannot really prepare in the same way. It is quite significant to see that the amount of hurricanes and tornados that are pounding the area, and the fact that no one has seen this many disasters happen all at once, or at least close together. The fact that nowadays in the height of citizen journalism, videos and pictures are broadcast, not only on the news, but also blogs or websites such as YouTube. This in a way is showing the situation for these people, and the height of the destruction.

In a way this shows the contemporary America, it shows the the geography of the country, as vast as it is, that in this area particularly, it is still dangerous to live. But then again, it does show that the community is still very strong, with people not only helping each other out, but groups of citizens working together to clear debris, or to help trapped citizens. Contemporary America is still very much a community, which dates back to the settlement of America, where a community would of survived.