A Nightmare

I woke up from a nightmare about 3 am this morning.

At first I didn't know where I was. I had family - not my family, dream family - and neighbors. All of us were thirsty and hungry. All of us were suffering and more than a few were dying. I understood everything, but we weren't speaking English.

I've never been to Puerto Rico. My Spanish is weak, at best, nonexistent at worst. I don't know what an inland village looks like. My subconscious was clearly creating and filling in the details I couldn't possibly know.

This place had one building that appeared to be partially built with brick or stone that was intact, all other buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged by Hurricane Maria. We'd made efforts to rebuild whatever we could, but water was a big problem. Everyone needed more water and there wasn't any clean water to be had. Food was less of a problem, but still a huge worry.

We were suffering. We wondered when help would arrive. The roads couldn't be completely gone, could they? Some people had left the village, and hadn't come back, so they must have gotten through. Cell phones didn't work. We didn't have power.

But mostly I remember the thirst.

I remember the feeling of being abandoned and forgotten, the despair of watching another person dying while we couldn't help. I remember thinking of leaving and finding a safer place to live - although when I thought that I felt a horrible pang in my heart that told me I loved my home. I remember wondering if I would die before I had a chance to leave, and thinking of trying to get out and find help before I was too weak to go.

I woke up so thirsty I thought I was dying and looked at my clock. The thirst faded so quickly I wanted to cry. I am safe and protected. I'm not in the middle of a disaster zone that is being ignored by my countrymen. But people who should be protected and safe are not - they aren't just being ignored, they are being intentionally insulted and demeaned. People who are also Americans.

This is truly a nightmare.

Crowdsourcing

One of my first thought after the Boston bombing was that looking for the bombs should be crowdsourced. As in, every picture should be put online and people should look for suspicious items and see if there's a group consensus and just generally figure out what happened... to help the FBI and law enforcement.

I now believe I was wrong. The crowdsourcing effort actually happened. A subreddit called "findbostonbombers" was created to share images and speculation. And you know what happened?

Idiots took the speculation and turned it into online memes, posting the stuff people were finding in the images onto Facebook as if it were from actual law enforcement and basically dragging people's faces through the mud. Many of those people were just victims, but the online hoards are after them because some idiot decided that crowdsourced speculation is better than the FBI.

So, while I don't mind being able to see the photos and such, I think the idea of crowdsourcing this sort of thing just isn't right. It cannot work without people taking it the wrong way. I think the folks in the subreddit meant well, but it has gone horribly wrong.

UPDATE: Once the FBI identified suspects, the crowdsource did a little better. But until then, way too many false positives being picked up by idiots who spread the information way too far. It was a shambles. Had no one taken the speculation and reported them as fact, it would have been fine. But whoever irresponsibly took that speculation and spread it turned it into something horrible.

What I've Been Working On

Daily Sun News: Lower Valley runners complete Boston Marathon before day turns tragic. I wrote the story and interviewed Doris. My co-worker Jennie interviewed Ryan Maxwell. Another co-worker, Amber, got information about the Flemings, but Amber declined a share of the byline. I will be doing a follow-up on the main story tomorrow and I hope to follow up with the runners at some point.

Also: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On. The purpose of terrorism is terror. We should not allow murderous idiots to dictate our lives.

The Sesame Street Blog has information on Helping Families Cope.

Be careful who you give to...

My heart goes out to the people of Boston, but my head wants to remind people that scumbag scammers will pop up like cockroaches around this event. If you give money, make sure you give it to a real charity.