Fox News had a report today of riding along on an airboat searching for survivors in New Orleans. As they searched, they found people who would not leave their homes. They implied that only the poor, the ignorant, and the stupid could make such a choice. They could not understand it. I guess you can sign me up as a part of the people that the urbane members of the media cannot grasp because I understand the choice they made perfectly.
What the rescuers in the boats offered was a “Hobson’s choice.” One could leave without their pets or be left behind. For many, that is not a choice. I would not have left either. My dogs are my family, they are my kids. When they entered our lives they joined us "until death do us part." I was heartened the other day to watch a chopper hover and pick up two men and their three Chihuahuas. They had been given a choice of taking a bag with them or their dogs. They made the only choice they could. Had I been flying that mission as the Pilot in Command and was worried about weight and space, I would have offered the same choice. I think anyone who understands what pets mean, would do the same thing.
Some will argue that making that choice is nuts. They would assert that human life is more important than animal life. I agree. But my dogs and I are in life together; we share the same things and would suffer the same fate. Leaving them would never be an option.
I understand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now saying they will force the recalcitrant to leave the inundated areas of New Orleans. The DHS doesn’t get it. Government has no right to force people from their homes. In a country based upon individual rights and one that has always stressed individualism and the right to make choices and take responsibility for our lives, what they propose to do is an incredible act of tyranny. The collective good never transcends the right of the individual. They did in the USSR, as they do in many socialist states. But we are not them - yet. But when DHS begins forcible evacuation we become no better.
Fox news finished their report with the comment that some homes ordered "rescuers" away from their homes and were barricaded and willing to defend their homes with guns. I understand that. It is what a free man (and their dogs) would do.
