This morning, as I was getting ready for work, CNN was playing in the background, with a report about Americans trapped in Cancun after Wilma came through. They were playing a clip from a woman who was now stranded in Cancun, and she said (I’m paraphrasing):

It’s horrible. It’s so hot in here, and all we have is a little fan to try to keep us cool. I don’t understand why the government hasn’t come to get us yet.

I don’t know if this attitude is one that was inspired by the media coverage of Katrina or simply a byproduct of our self-centered society, but I nearly went into shock upon hearing that. It’s bad to expect the government to come riding to your rescue when you’re at home and hit by a hurricane. The government can’t take that responsibility from you without taking it from everyone else, and it can’t do that without major infringements on our rights. Still, it’s understandable that, if you’re at home and you feel helpless to leave, you’d want someone to help you out. I personally think that’s a function of charitable organizations, but, hey, that’s me.

As bad as that is, though, it’s something entirely different to expect the government to come running into a foreign country to “save” you. Why?

1. The federal government is forbidden to intervene in its own country without a request for help from a state government. It’s almost certainly not going to send troops to save you on foreign soil in a country that we are not at war with (nor willing to go to war with) unless they’ve explicitly asked for us to come in and help out (and even then, you probably won’t get any special priority). Expecting otherwise is silly.
2. In Louisiana, those people who were desperately asking for help at least had the excuse that they hadn’t had the means to leave. The fact that you’re in a foreign country kind of indicates that you’re not exactly without the means to travel a bit. Did you hear the news stories about the hurricane and think to yourself, “Oh, well, a hurricane. That should be fun!”?
3. Nothing I heard indicated you were in any real danger of dying. The complaint you repeated, a few times, was that it was hot. You’re in Cancun! Now, I’ve never actually been to Cancun, myself, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a popular tourist location because of its ski slopes and dogsled races.

   I have a friend who recently headed to Antartica to work for a while (six months? A year? I have no idea what the usual “rotation” there is). If she called CNN and demanded that the U.S. government come and get her because it was so cold, you’d laugh at her, and rightly so. How is this any different?

I don’t mean to sound heartless, but this reminds me of the big outcry about the girl who disappeared in Aruba. “The government should do something!” Look, you’re in a foreign country, and while our government might have some sway, the truth is, when you’re in a foreign country, you’re basically at the mercy of the foreign government. If something happens to you, there’s frightfully little that your government is entitled to do, and that is how it should be.

I don’t understand why this is so hard for some people to comprehend.