Taking the Scenic Route

At least it is looking like more people are getting rescue and food.  Sadly, more is coming out about how help was refused here in the United States too, from rescue professionals.  They were told that they couldn’t just volunteer, they had to be contracted.  A lot of bureaucracy is getting in the way.  Once the military was finally allowed in, they had the communication and training to actually start accomplishing things. 

I hope Bush is taken to task for his utter inadequacy in this crisis.  Bush’s father was campaigning during Andrew, and stopped campaigning to dispatch 22,000 troops and 7,000 national guard within a few hours of the hurricane.  Clinton was overseas in negotiations with the leader of China (imagine that, a president actually doing something instead of on vacation), and actually declared Floyd a natural disaster so that military and aid could immediately implemented.  Then he left early to aid in the clean-up.

What does Bush do?  He stays on vacation.  They had several days warning that it could happen, and yet he did nothing to help with the evacuations, he just kept puttering around his fake ranch and playing baseball games.

I think the thing I find the most disgusting is the suggestion that those people who where trapped got what they deserved.  Of course, there were a few idiots who had the means, but wanted to wait it out.  However, the vast majority did not have the means, or where not physically able to. Why did they not line up all those buses through the middle of the poorest sections of the city and pick up people.  Why didn’t they take them to the rescue areas before the tragedy.  I would wager there would not be nearly the number of bodies floating in the streets today if somebody in power would have recognized that many people did not have the means to just pick up and leave, no matter how much they wanted to.

Maybe I should stop getting pregnant.  About this point in my pregnancy is when 9-11 happened too.  At least that time I wasn’t ashamed of my governments response, I was a bit freaked out by the nationalism (not the same thing as patriotism) that swept over the country, but the ongoing suffering due to a lack of response just did not happen on this level.

I am so saddened by the disaster in New Orleans.  It would normally greatly disturb me, but with pregnancy hormones it is about to have me completely undone.  I am usually sobbing uncontrollably even with just seeing a minute or two of coverage.  I turn it off because I can’t handle it, then feel guilty because I have the option of changing the channel.  The babies, the mamas, the people who can’t find their loved ones, the people who watched their loved ones die.  It is so much.  All those terms you learn in sociology of how people react in situations like this might be accurate, but they seem so hollow when you see it happen.  The loss of civilization is causing so many people to just crack.  People shooting at the rescuers, capsizing boats trying to get on in a desperate attempt to get to safety.  It is just so much.  Too much. 

Formula fed babies are starving. There is no formula, there is no water to make formula.  Breastfeed babies had a little more time, but how long can you produce milk if you have no water?  Can you imagine dealing with the lack of diapers?  There is no way to clean cloth, there is no way to get disposables.  Tired parents trying to wade through uncertain waters, carrying babies and children when their arms, bodies and minds must be so exhausted.  And now, even able bodied people can be brought down quickly with infection and disease because of the poisoned waters standing everywhere, and the blow that exhaustion can do to your immune system.  And the dead bodies everywhere.  Horrifying. 

They are so isolated they can’t see that anybody is even trying to get to them.  They don’t know that haven’t been forgotten, we just can’t get there.  You would think that our military would be trained to be able to get into any situation, but the troops are so thin here in the states, that I am not sure how much of a response they can make. 

One of the disheartening things is Bush’s response.  Other countries are offering help, from humanitarian, to civil engineers, to fuel, and he is refusing help.  Smug son-of-a-bitch cares more about his pride than helping people. “we’ll take care of it ourselves”.  Well, you are doing a bang-up job there, aren’t you. 

My soul is hurting so bad for those people.  May God be with them.

Well, I have been busy, busy.  If you will notice, I have updated my page a little bit, adding some information pages to the modules on the left side of my xanga page.  (if you only get my updates in an email form, you will have to actually come to the xanga site to see it.)  If somebody discovers links that don’t work please let me know. 

There are only two things that I already know of that will need up dates.  First, the Gap is offline right now, so I am not sure if the link will work properly.  Second, in my ‘items available to trade’, when I pulled out my ‘girly pumpkin hat’ to get a picture of it, I realized that I hadn’t finished the stem at the top of the hat, so I need to do a bit of i-cord and attach it, and then get a picture of it during daylight hours.  It is a pumpkin hat with a ruffle around the face, done in LTK pumpkin colored wool, meant to look like a little pumpkin.  I think I have yarn to make a little soaker to match it.  I need to clean my house first, but I hope to get started on finishing up the hat and the soaker pretty soon.