The Storm that may have Brought Us Together

Hurricane Sandy never sounded all that threatening, living in the Albany area as we do. Some ‘frankenstorm’ was coming up to annihilate the eastern seaboard, but as far inland as Albany is, we barely saw anything on RPI campus. Of course, the storm hit much harder than many of us had anticipated, and wreaked untold havoc upon New Jersey and New York City. Of course, with a national disaster, the first thing everyone thought about was how the storm is going to, bad puns aside, turn the tides in the then upcoming election. With many dead, and a rather sizable portion of the New Jersey and New York areas without power, and some without homes at all, the first thing many political pundits do is blame the opposition for causing the storm and using it as a political weapon. Ignoring the faulty logic in these claims, do they really have to politicize it?

Unfortunately, politicizing tragedies seems to be becoming almost a sport, where each person to politicize the current strategy first tries to outdo the person who did so before them. Romney wisely kept quiet about the effects of Sandy, other than to wish his condolences to those affected and to attempt to raise some funds to help those people out. Many conservative pundits, though, decided to take it upon themselves to blame the president, and the rest of his party for using this hurricane to stop Romney’s momentum and win the election for the Democrats. As usual, we saw politicians make a play for their own power and status, rather than focusing on the real problem: millions of people without power, many of whom still don’t have power, and the many areas that are still rationing gas in order to make sure that everyone gets some.

I do, though, thoroughly applaud the President on his efforts to put aside politics and work towards fixing the real problem. The fact that Governor Christie of New Jersey, a staunch Republican and long-time critic of the President, complimented Obama on his efforts made me feel proud, both as a New Jersey native, for having a governor willing to put aside partisan politics to help his people, and as an American, for having a President willing to do the same. While I still feel that an overwhelming majority of politicians are out there to make a name, and a small fortune, for themselves, and to further secure their own power, I feel more confident now that there are some of them who are looking out for us, the small guys. It has slowly begun to restore my faith that our Democracy is not yet beyond saving.