Civility Reigns at San Diego Stadium

FOX ^ | 10/23/2007 | SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer

[shbox]

Exerted....

"SAN DIEGO — Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes.

The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium."

"Bands belted out rock 'n' roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires."

"At Qualcomm, thousands of tents, many set up by relief organizations, provided temporary roofs, while hundreds of people slept on open-air cots. Some elderly evacuees were housed in stadium club boxes.

Aggressive efforts by disaster-response officials to bring supplies helped ensure civility. A heavy police contingent and National Guard troops with automatic weapons stood by just in case."

"You can deal with it, or you can whine about it," he said while erecting a tent in Qualcomm's parking lot, as temperatures hovered comfortably in the low 70s."

Megan Malan, a massage therapist, rubbed the back of a man wearing a firefighter's T-shirt.

She had little in the way of material goods to offer to the victims, so she provided her professional services, for free, to nervous evacuees.

Hundreds sat in the stands watching TV sets, transfixed as news programs broadcast images of destruction. Among them was Bruce Fowler, whose home in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood had survived fires in 2003.

"Every couple of years, you don't want to go through this worry," Fowler said, sipping a root beer. "I never thought I'd be in a place like this, getting handouts."

Most people seemed happy for the free food and drink. A Hyatt hotel catered one buffet, offering chicken with artichoke hearts and capers in cream sauce, jambalaya and shredded-beef empanadas.

[shbox]

WOW, stay safe over there, sofaman.

[jamese777]

However there’s a whole lotta illegal aliens at Qualcomm Stadium at the moment...25 miles from Tijuana.

[shbox]

Good on your SF. I hope his property can make it through. But property is just material things. If they stay safe, the same mentality that got them where they are today will enable them to rebuild.

....and they will do it without government handouts.

[shbox]

However there’s a whole lotta illegal aliens at Qualcomm Stadium at the moment..

Yeah...and what does that have to say about the people in NOLA? If illegal aliens can be in the same situation and be civil about it......

At the very least, they will at least be gracious for any help they get.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

What a sterling example of making the best of a bad situation.

I’d expect nothing less from Southern California, at least the SoCal of decades past. Growing up there and living there as an adult, I was always impressed with the ability of folks there to turn what might otherwise be a big mess into, well, a party. I was the beneficiary of that several times: when a freeway disaster stopped traffic for hours
and a bag of Trader Joe’s groceries became a spontaneous picnic; when a wheel fell off our car on Deadman’s Bend north of Laguna and the quiche we were carrying to a friend’s house became the centerpiece of a teenage
beachside mobile-home celebration while we called for a tow...

Spontaneous parties were a happy consequence of SoCal’s local culture, and, after all the horrors of Katrina, I’m delighted to read that it still exists.

[avacado]

"But they have nicer busses..."

[shbox]

That sounds about right...you mean you didn’t blame Bush’s failed trade policies on the defective overseas lugnuts that made your wheel fall off??? LOL

Around here we have what we call Hugo kids. My daughter is a Hugo baby, born July 1990....exactly 9 months after Hurricane Hugo came through and cut power and blocked roads and confined us to dark houses with no power for a week. Hey, we made the most of the situation...

[avacado]

"I hope some of them have gotten jobs by now. It’s only been two years."

Are you kidding me! They have their free rent taken care of all the way to March of 2009, not 2008, but 2009! And they have other monies coming in. Job? LOL! Freeloading is their job and right now they are in the zenith of their careers!

[Billthedrill]

Mr. Fowler considers “help” a “handout”, not a “right”. Therein lies the difference.

Absolutely on the mark, and not a thing to add. BTT.

[humblegunner]

Freeloading is their job and right now they are in the zenith of their careers!

Some are ambitious and find time for extra-curricular gang activities as well.

I gotta respect initiative.

[SevenofNine]

Yeah where is Looter guy I thought he was show up unless he is Saints fan he afraid he get his a*** kick by Raider or Charger fan LOL!

[najida]

That’s the message I’m getting from those I know there.....they’re either busy, doing something, helping out or trying to find a way to get to their jobs.

[SevenofNine]

ESSSS rack itt ROFL

MONK get in here darling

OUR Fav dude show up FINALLY

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"That’s the message I’m getting from those I know there.....they’re either busy, doing something, helping out or trying to find a way to get to their jobs."

Not all of California is like that. Attitudes differ significantly from South to North, for example.

When the terrible earthquake hit the Bay Area in 1989 and a big freeway fell down, there commenced ten years of arguing and obstructionism on the part of the locals. The area is filled with neighborhoods where you can drive for blocks and blocks and know with certainty that no one there had held a job for four or five generations. But they have plenty of time on their hands to get in the way of progress. The impasse eventually resulted in the State and Federal agencies capitulating to their demands, and the freeway was re-routed out of its former neighborhood and onto fresh landfill in the Bay, with new feeder roads (including the "Mandela Parkway"). Until the Big Dig took the crown in Boston, the result was the costliest roadway in the nation.

Ten years. Ten years of wrangling and griping and posturing and obstructing.

In the middle of it, four years in, Southern California had a terrible earthquake and a big freeway fell down. Within two weeks a parallel alternate road had been opened. Within six months the freeway had been completely rebuilt.

We asked our Bay Area friends why it was that the Oakland freeway still hadn't been rebuilt when it was clear from Southern California's example that the job could be done. Their reply: "Well yeah, that's 'cause all the rich Republicans there stole all the money for freeway rebuilding."

I kid you not: In all sincerity, they believed that the weekly spectacle of mobs of welfare myrmidons yowling at endless panels of commissions and planners and review agencies and councils for four endless years had nothing to do with it. Oh, no, it was the eeeeevil Republicans and their sticky fingers, four years in, which deprived the Bay Area of the money that was rightfully theirs.

This was one of my early educations into the mental dysfunction that is leftism.

I fully expect the San Diego situation will be held aloft by the Left as clear proof that Bush and Rove victimized the denizens of New Orleans because of their skin color, or because they vote Democrat, or something of the sort. The culture of self-sufficiency and community that characterizes Southern California simply cannot be grasped by these people.

[psjones]

You’re probably talking about the freeway pass in my area that collapsed and as an alternative the Old Road pass which goes out into the valley was opened. You’re right, it took months to get the freeway pass rebuilt, but luckily we live in a heavily republican area otherwise it might just have taken years. This area at the time of the ‘92 quake was mainly middle class, now I’d say we have quite a bit of upper middle class living in this area.

[BJClinton]

You owe me a new keyboard!!!

Bwahahahahaha!!

Hey isn’t that the firefighter from LA that looted the LAFD because of the whole “Big Dawg/dog food” practical joke? Kinda fitting IMHO.

[EveningStar]

That’s him.

[B4Ranch]

>That mentality of “getting something” is the root of the problem IMHO.<

I am amazed that you didn’t realize sooner what the problem was at Katrina, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FINGERS. Yes, F.E.M.A.!

Without F.E.M.A.’s assistance, even the sun can rise and fall smoothly.