Nancy Slotnick: What Sandy Did To My Home & My Closing Argument for Obama

I am Katniss Everdeen and I approve this message. Ok, I’m not her. But I read the trilogy and I know she would be with me on this. Trust me.

Hurricane Sandy did this to my house.

And still when I heard that Mayor Bloomberg endorsed Obama because of his stance on global warming, I thought, “That’s great, maybe something good will come of this!”  But I didn’t think much about global warming.  Then Senator Schumer said it.  And still I thought- they’re politicizing the issue.  We just need some FEMA assistance right now.  I couldn’t wrap my head around global warming.  Maybe I was scared.  It was Halloween after all.  And we just lost our house.

Global warming is such a lukewarm phrase anyway – it has no bite to it.  All I can think of is people who want a cause to complain about.  Like Chicken Little with old “the sky is falling” thing.  I love the smell of Chicken Little on my grill in the morning.  Especially the grill I used to have in Fire Island.  We called it circle chicken- because it was on the rotisserie- and it was so good.  But I digress and I am getting sad now.

Then BAM– and it hit me.  When I started pondering whether we should re-build our house at all, since our house is on a barrier island, I realized– We are destroying our planet and I’ll be lucky if NYC is around when my son grows up.  This storm brought the most powerful city in the world to its knees.  Way worse in devastation and vulnerability than 9-11.  It’s true that because of great decisions on the part of the Mayor and others there were minimal lives lost.  But when we lose whole communities, this is bigger than we realize.  To anyone who’s even still considering voting for Romney after this—I hope that your roads are flooded and you can’t make it to the voting booths.  I hope a fallen telephone pole blocks you from getting to the poll site.

And to those who want to vote for Obama but might not make it, get off of your sorry ass!  If you are overwhelmed with cleaning up this mess, as I am, take a break for something important.  Get on a bicycle and get to the voting booth anyway.  Katniss Everdeen would.

Part of me wishes that I could just be gracious and blog this week to say: “Thank you so much to all the friends and family who have been so wonderful and supportive in this time of need.  My heart goes out to all of those who lost homes or loved ones in this horrible storm.  My thoughts and prayers are with you.”  But that would be Bullshit.  Because I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore!  And all the thoughts and prayers in the world are not equal to action.  They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  Well I am a woman scorned and I am trying to take action.  But it feels useless.  I can’t go to our house- we are not allowed yet.  I can’t reach anyone for help.  We are a summer community, and Long Island has their own problems to deal with right now, understandably.  I can’t protect my house nor my community from future ruin.

But I can vote.  So I can vote for Obama- who is a smart man that has given a lot of strategic consideration to this issue and I know that he will have us in mind.   Mayor Bloomberg knows this too.  Romney will probably start talking about global warming now because he is just smart enough to realize that it’s a buzz word.  When he speaks he will be speaking out of his ass.  Trust me.  My Dad worked ran public housing in Massachusetts when Romney was governor.  Romney feigns interest like most politicians do, but he’s too self-interested to really care.

That’s why I’m going to vote for Obama.  And I’m not going to call it “global warming” anymore.  I’ll call it Global Obalming.  As in “balmy Miami.”  And as in “we’ll be embalming the planet before we know it.” And as in “Obama is the only one who will really truly do something about this.”  We’re in dire need of some Obamacare!!  Trust me.

I am Katniss Everdeen and I approve this message.