Week 9

Wow - what else is there to say about the fires? Devastating, sad, depressing, scary, all-around terrible. My heart goes out to everyone affected directly or indirectly. I can't even fathom the idea that someone may have started one or more of them on purpose. What in the heck could drive someone to do such a thing??? Since that person or people will likely never be caught, I just hope that he/she/they are feeling so guilty that they can barely take it anymore. But more importantly, I just hope that everyone who had a home that was destroyed is able to rebuild as quickly and painlessly as possible. What an amazing display of San Diegans' hearts through all of this, though. The community has really come together. And the news coverage and other health communication has been phenomenal, in my opinion, as nothing else was even on tv or radio for a few days (on local stations for those of us who do not have cable). However, I have heard a few people interviewed who have said that they were not given word about their neighborhoods' mandatory evacuations until they were almost too late (i.e., the fires almost consumed them). I wonder what went wrong...why were they not made more aware? What were they doing, if not watching the news 24/7 like the rest of us?
On another note, I have come across a few articles unrelated to the fires during these past few days, as I have been wasting hours of time doing nothing at my computer. The first one is about the lack of health literacy among poor people, as we discussed a couple of weeks ago: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071023/hl_nm/india_health_information_dc;_ylt=AvjGA7cSMLBG26qsqDoaD4MQ.3QA
The second one addresses different kinds of ads (e.g., emotional appeal, informative, etc.), as we discussed the last time we met (I think) in the context of the obesity epidemic: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071022/ap_on_he_me/diet_obesity_ads;_ylt=Aqd4fpSDv2qLZ5vUpDYCYX4R.3QA
Finally, the last one pertains to my group's cause (the walking schoolbus), as it talks about the nationwide attempt to get these things started in various locations: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071026/ap_on_he_me/fitness_school_commuters;_ylt=AkD7Hz7pUz_6CH0ZH92M1Xpa24cA
Stay safe, everyone!