Something Strange and Deadly Discussion #2

So this is for week two of Susan Dennard's Strange and Deadly book discussion!

The question: Magic and ghostly elements frequent the Something Strange and Deadly series. Even though corpses do awaken from time to time and hauntings are hardly that uncommon, the people of Philadelphia seem determined to pretend the Dead are not a growing threat.

Do you think that’s part of human nature? To push on and ignore the danger at our door? Or do you think Philadelphia’s ignorance—or for that matter, any ignorance/false sense of safety in modern days as well—can be pinned on politicians? Can you think of any examples where something similar happened, but rather than the Dead, it was a natural disaster/growing crime rate/etc.?

I'm kind of stuck on this question, but I think part of it is that we only know so much about the politics and politicians in the book as is told. We don't exactly what the politicians are saying and/or doing except that they don't want the Spirit Hunters there and that they are willing to cover up the truth and reality of the situation.

I do believe that oftentimes, people tend to not see the dangers that surround them until something happens that directly impacts them. Even in Something Strange and Deadly, Eleanor started off as being fairly nonchalant about the Dead until it became her business and until it directly affected her. It seemed so far away from her, and it was something that couldn't possibly be a problem to her...until it was. Perhaps part of it was the politicians, but a lot of it comes from an individual's way of thinking as well.

For example, when Hurricane Irene hit, it didn't affect many people living in my area. The worst that happened was loss of electricity for a few nights. It wasn't deemed to be a problem, and nobody addressed the fact that there could have been a bigger impact. So when news of Super-storm Sandy came about, a lot of people paid little attention to it, thinking that it couldn't possibly be that bad, particularly after Irene had a relatively small impact on the people within my school district. However, Sandy had a much more devastating effect, and it was then that people realized how terrible things were when such an event occurred. Yes, it was still rather far off from me, and the biggest impact was the loss of power for ~5 days and no school for a week and a few days. But all around me, we felt the impact. Teachers at my school had their homes destroyed or at the very least, their possessions. Houses just a few blocks away had trees downed right over them. There were stories of all the dead. The beaches we're all so familiar with were very badly damaged. The sense of security that existed before isn't here anymore. Now, everyone's going to take a warning for a hurricane seriously. That false sense of security isn't because of the politicians. It's because of how we, as people, view situations that don't seem to be near or pertinent to us.

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