What's Going On: How a little snow can cripple the South and turn us into jerks

Are we all a bunch of jerks?

What’s the definition of a jerk? If it’s easier for you to conceptualize, substitute another word for jerk that starts with an A and ends with an E and includes two S’s and an hol in the middle.

Let’s take this scenario: if you saw a man walking down the street and he stopped long enough to take pleasure in watching someone suffer in pain, would you call that person a jerk (or the “A” word)? What if instead of laughing robustly at one suffering person, he/she was enjoying the discomfort of many, while doing nothing to ease their suffering.

Would that person not meet the “jerk” criteria?

In that context, how many of us read the news reports coming out of Atlanta and other parts of the Deep South last week and made light, reveled or laughed at the residents there as they struggled with their version of a winter storm. 

Yes, it was just a couple inches of snow. Yes, it shut down the city. No, many people had no idea how to drive in it. 

And north of the Mason Dixon line, where we don’t notice a snowfall that doesn’t surpass three-four times that size, we looked upon our countrymen with bewilderment and amazement at their struggles. 

And we laughed. 

I say we because I’m as guilty as anyone. But then I started reading a little more. I read about people who slept in their cars with no food or heat. I read about hundreds upon hundreds of car wrecks. I saw pictures of abandoned cars and city streets that more resembled a post-apocylaptic world filled with zombies than a typically busy metropolitan area. 

And then I read about hundreds upon hundreds of children who were stranded at school, forced to spend the night there away from their parents because travel was not possible.

Imagining my own son forced into that ordeal and suddenly, the humor was lost. 

I’m not a bad guy and I don’t think most people who collectively and condesecendingly shook their heads at those dysfunctional southerners are either. 

In an area where the infrastructure to deal with winter storms is a necessity and where residents have become accustomed to driving in those conditions, its easy for us to not understand how so little of snow can cause so many problems. 

What we should be able to understand though is human suffering. And that is something that should compel us to compassion and empathy. Not humor and amusement.

That’s certainly something I will keep in mind the next time a story like this unfolds. There are plenty of other reasons for people to think I’m a jerk. I don’t need to add anymore. 

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.