Friday, May 4, 2012 - Caballo Lake State Park, Caballo NM
< previous day | archives | next day >

Ocotillo, Caballo Lake State Park, Caballo NM, May 1, 2012
Night camp
Riverside - Caballo Lake State Park, Caballo NM
- Verizon cell phone and broadband service - fair signal if a bit slow
- Go to Caballo Lake State Park website
- Locate Caballo Lake State Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Disaster and the Failure of Authority
Disasters are almost by definition about the failure of authority, in part because the powers that be are supposed to protect us from them, in part also because the thousand dispersed needs of a disaster overwhelm even the best governments, and because the government version of governing often arrives at the point of a gun. But the authorities don't usually fail so spectacularly. Failure at this level requires sustained effort. The deepening of the divide between the haves and have nots, the stripping away of social services, the defunding of the infrastructure, mean that this disaster—not of weather but of policy—has been more or less what was intended to happen, if not so starkly in plain sight.
The Uses of Disaster Rebecca Solnit, Harpers.org, September 9, 2005