Noted Without Comment
Posted on September 5, 2005 Posted by John Scalzi 9 Comments
Posted: 6:24 p.m. ET
CNN’s Drew Griffin in New Orleans, Louisiana
I am stunned by an interview I conducted with New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a “ticket.” Dupree was shaken telling us the story. He just couldn’t believe these people were afraid they’d be charged for a rescue.
Have you needed an ambulance lately?
Semantics: is not the post itself a comment? Is it not likely that a statistical analysis of the context of your recent and previous posts will allow us to make predictions about what your general inner-monologue was at the time of readin and posting?
Just trying to give us an excuse to argue and think about something else for a minute before going back to obsessively refreshing Interdictor and the Time-Picayune.
I don’t doubt it. Around here, you can buy a $50 per year, per person subscription to the local helicopter flight rescue team, or you can roll the dice and hope you never need their services. Fees for a single air lift run as high as several thousand dollars. I’d be asking the same questions.
It wouldn’t be the first time people have been “given” something by a rescue org and then later finding out there is a charge. (I heard a lot of bad stuff about the Red Cross charging bed-ridden soldiers for what appeared to be donuts and coffee during “goodwill” hospital visits and such a few wars back, although I have no idea if that sort of thing is still happening).
Around here, ambulance rides get charged by the mile.
The more things change… (revisited)
Forfatteren Scott Westerfeld citerer på sin blog fra bogen The Sinking of Titanic fra 1912 – et citat der på slående vis relaterer til begivenhederne i New Orleans:
Scott slutter af med at konkludere:
“That’s right, because it’s always about the misb
Ahem…make that “for what appeared to be free donuts and coffee”
Sorry.
When the US rescues its citizens abroad, it frequently makes them sign a form promising to reimburse the government for costs. I’m not sure other countries do this. But it shows that these people’s concerns were not as far-fetched as one might believe.
In many countries people are charged for a rescue. Were they foreigners?
hello, for some reason i can’t post my additional comment for the “being poor is…” list, so i thought i’d send it here:
being poor is being told there is no charge for my doctor’s visit because my income is so low, but to then say that donations are welcome.
r