If I wanted to be clever, or wise or hip - I would find some Martin Luther King/Gandhi/Bob Dylan quote to insert here.  It would be cryptic enough to be cool.  It would be blatant enough to strike a chord, however momentary, with the reader.

And then there would be the next post in your Dashboard about Harry Potter or a baby animal or some shit like that.

But I’m empty.  Don’t have anything to offer up other than the truth.

There was a flood that came through the town I live in.  Don’t know about it?  Look up Minot, North Dakota in Google and click the news tab.  Either way, it was your typical disaster.  No loss of life, and we had advance warning.  It was on the news for a few days, and then the river crested.

When the water goes down the news coverage goes away.  That’s the nature of media.  This year there have been all sorts of disasters - Tuscaloosa, Joplin, Mississippi Flooding - take your pick.  There will be another soon, and another after that.  That’s the nature of nature.

But now - now what?  To say that the situation in this town is fucked up is an understatement.  The scope of this destruction is unimaginable.  Pictures are one thing, but to stand in this shit - surrounded by block after block after block of rotting debris, the putrid stench of sewer and river choking the air - it takes whatever is in your soul and empties it.  It’s exhausting just to look at.

This isn’t just a neighborhood affected - this is thousands of homes we’re talking about.  And it’s not just some random wet basements, it’s complete and total unmitigated chaos.  It’s the aftermath of a war.

But if you just get a little bit up and out of the valley the effected areas are in, life is normal.  Just a minor change in elevation has created a town of the have’s and the have nots.  Personally, I am straddling both parts.  I am lucky to be an owner of a business where I have been living since the evacuation order went out.  I am unlucky, however, in the fact that as a direct cause of the flood my living situation has changed and I no longer have a home.  But the same goes for about 12,000 individuals - so I am not alone. I’ve got a roof over my head.  I live comfortably.  I’ve got people that care about me.  That’s all that matters.

When I start to get dark, however, is when I begin to think of the future.  We already lived in a town where rent and housing prices were already being gouged as high as possible.  Now, there literally is nowhere to live.  When I say nowhere, I don’t mean there are some places to live but they are kind of crappy, I mean there is no-fucking-where to live.  To give you an idea, in this past Sunday paper there was a room for rent listed at $500/month.  For a fucking room.  In the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere Minot, North Dakota.  FOR A FUCKING ROOM.

But don’t worry, there’s a new apartment complex opening up in the middle of August where a two-bedroom will only run $1,450/month.  Fuck.  Sign me up for two!

As I said, this is a town of the have’s/have nots.  And I’m sick of those that have a place to live offer up hopeful words of encouragement.  It’s nice and everything, but instead of platitudes, how about you get yourself some boots, a mask, gloves and just show up at someones house and help them save whatever bit of the American Dream remains for them.  Stand in the shit.  Smell that putrid air.  Drag some wet, moldy sheetrock around for an afternoon and then try to offer up some hopeful words.

In fact, if you happen to be reading this and you live in this town and haven’t had a chance to help out - do so.  You don’t need an invitation, just show up.  Help someone demo out their house.  Pass out cold drinks.  But do something, do anything.  If you don’t - fuck you.  You’re a piece of shit.  This isn’t some late night commercial where some old bastard is standing in a village somewhere in Africa showing you a starving child, this is your fucking backyard.  You can’t change the fucking channel.

I am tired and I am rambling.

The river is contained within the channel.  The flood is still here.