Oh, Charlie Hebdo!!

The French weekly satirical newspaper is at it again.

Their most recent artwork for their publication suggests a very serious moment in the time of Hurricane Harvey striking the very heart and soul of the state of Texas.

To those readers who do not speak French, it reads: GOD EXISTS! HE DROWNED ALL THE NEO-NAZIS IN TEXAS!

This rather insulting cover goes above and beyond to be mocking those people who have Christian beliefs, but more focused this is against those people who are victims of the recent hurricane. And they want to call it humor.

The only ones laughing are those at Charlie Hebdo. And definitely not a single person is laughing in Texas.

For those who do not remember, Charlie Hebdo suffered two terrorist attacks. The most recent back in January of 2015 because they dared to publish an image that mocked Islam on their cover. (The same as they have done with the victims of Hurricane Harvey today.) Two Islamic extremists who were heavily armed stormed the office of the newspaper and held people hostage, killing several people and the entire attack left twelve dead and eleven injured.

And now more than two and a half years later, one could argue that Charlie Hebdo have not learned anything. They mock the citizens of Texas during a very severe disaster, casting those who were lost in the storm as Neo-Nazis.

Hurricane Harvey may have left the state of Texas, but millions of people are still dealing with the effects of what the storm brought. Nearly HALF of the state’s population was forced to deal with Harvey in one way or another. And these effects will most definitely be long lasting.

Even though Charlie Hebdo is purely satire, it has the rest of the world in an uproar. Many people are finding the recent publication offensive, tasteless, and abhorrent.

The idea that the victims of this hurricane were Neo-Nazis is one of the dumbest, most ignorant things that I have ever heard.

And Charlie Hebdo sits thousands of miles away, hiding away in their offices filled with self-amusement and laughter while Americans ponder the thought about the newspaper suffering yet again the same experiences they had in early 2015 and if they ever think about having to go through that again.

It obviously  isn’t going to happen. I DOUBT that any citizen of the state of Texas is going to waste their time, resources, and money to fly to Paris to seek retribution against the newspaper because they were offended.

Instead the state of Texas and ALL of its people are rolling their eyes at Charlie Hebdo.

Texas doesn’t have time for any of that nonsense!!!

We are too busy taking care of our own to be worried about what some insignificant weak ass publication may or may not think about the people of Texas. There are people who need help. There are people who are hurt. There are people who are dead. And those are the  people that we will focus our attention on, until this disaster is over and the needs of the people are met.

These people will be attended to. No matter if they are white or black, liberal or conservative, members of the KKK or Black Lives Matter. If they are calling out for help, then the state of Texas and its people are going to reach out to do just that!!! Americans are helping Americans.

We don’t have the time to be divided as Charlie Hebdo would like us to be. This horrible storm has done the exact opposite and brought everyone together in Texas AND all across the United States of America! Millions of people across the land are doing what they can either by donating money or giving supplies and other goods while the employees sit back laughing and try to think of who they can piss off next week.

It is not working as well as they had hoped here in Texas. Nobody here cares about what other nations think of them right now.

So to those employees in Paris:

We don’t need you. You can keep your fries and Eiffel Tower. We already have BBQ and The Alamo.

Harvey

Houston, Texas: August 2017

“Anyone who says they’re not afraid at the time of a hurricane is either a fool or a liar, or a little bit of both.” Anderson Cooper

I decided to blog about the experiences of the most recent of days. I know a few people have reached out to find out if I was okay and I am appreciative.

Texas is a giant mess right now. However locally it is not as severe as other places.

Harvey was brutal when it made land as a category 4 hurricane. By the time the true outer bands of the storms had reached my area it was only a Tropical Storm. And as of the time of this blog being written, it remains as one.

It began to rain late Friday night/early Saturday morning. And it has been ever since in this area. The storm either was not moving at all or not very fast which caused so much rain to fall in the area. The more east you go from where I am the worse it gets with rivers flooding and mandatory evacuations being put into place.

All day Saturday and much of today (Sunday) there was a lot of wind and rain. The only problem was that the wind never stopped. It never slowed down. And it gusted over 50 mph at times.

My biggest worry throughout this event was the possibility of losing power. And that being over the weekend when nobody is really around. My home phone is connected along with my Internet service provider. If the power went out, the home phone went out. And with nobody around because of the weekend, had their been something that came up that I needed to reach out and call for help, I would not have been able to do so at all. I had my cell phone stolen while in a crowd of people the weekend before. So essentially, if the power went out, I would have been totally lost and in the dark.

I am thankful that never happened. The power did flicker once Saturday evening, but it just “blinked” and that was all.

I had barely used the telephone at all and never really opened my front door through it all.

By the time this whole thing could end and be gone, my area could potentially receive any where between ten and fifteen inches of rain. So even though the storm threat is gone, we will have to deal with the threat of major flooding for quite some time.

We had what is called the Memorial Day Weekend floods happen in 2015. I am not sure if Harvey is going to end up being a worse event than that or not. At least for this area.

My heart is crushed though because of the Houston area. Knowing so many people in that area and now realizing the horrible weather conditions that they are suffering at the moment is a horrible feeling. And it gets even worse knowing that its not over for them as of yet. With that area projected to receive over 40 inches of rain!!! I suspect that this will be a worse storm than Alison that they went through so many years ago.

I am safe for the most part. But due to the damage that the area did suffer through, it will be a struggle to adapt to until this storm clears out and the city is able to clean everything up. Even though the worst parts of Harvey are seemingly done for me, its a battle to be able to get out and get things I may need.

But I am alive. Thank you to all of those who reached out. My struggle alive and well, but it isn’t as bad as it is for the people in the Houston area. My thoughts are with them.