Taking the Scenic Route

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.