The angsty entry here
Sep. 1st, 2005 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shalannaOkay, I can't stand it any longer. My blood sugar is soaring because I don't have a bus or a plane and cannot do anything to start helping the people of NOLA. I'm going to have to turn to the old movie channel for relief.
I just conferred with my doctor's nurse, the receptionist, and the bank teller, and we have come to a scary conclusion.
The government is TRYING to kill the poor people.
That's right. Because they are "poor" and so forth, the gov't is dragging its feet and not doing anything to rescue the people off roofs or pick them up out of the Superdome and what-have-you. Why are they not dropping UNICEF-style CARE packages of water and K-rations? Why are they not mobilizing more of the military (the ones they haven't sent overseas--hey, I SAID they needed to keep more military at HOME, lest we NEED THEM)? What is the big problem? Elderly people and babies are outside the Superdome right now, and buses are lined up on the interstate waiting, and Texas has done everything but offer to teleport them to Macy's with the Magic ComeGetCha wand, but now there is "some security problem," which is a bunch of 3@$&#^$ crap, excuse my special characters. There was a gunshot--bad, from the criminal element. But this could be worked around. Instead, they are delaying the loading of the buses. That is punishing the wrong people! These are not the looters! These are the ones trying to hang on. One lady with three toddlers in her lap, one man holding up a tiny infant--calling for help.
Harry Connick, Jr., who apparently stayed behind in the French Quarter, has just gone over to the Superdome and called in to Ron Reagan's show to say that people are on the verge of death from dehydration (infants and elderly, especially), and that the evacuation has to start. They need bottled water. They have to have food. It's simply incomprehensible that our "preparedness" fails for FOUR DAYS here. People were holding up their babies and toddlers and shouting at the cameras--I wished I could reach in and snatch those children (if not the entire family) through the screen to safety, where they could sit in my backyard wading pool and play with "Snoopy" bath toys, then come inside for peanut butter and jelly and watch "Maisy" on TV. I can't believe our FEMA units are not doing more. I realize there's water on the roads, but hey, the LOOTERS supposedly are running around like gangbusters, so maybe some of the good guys could get big wheels as well and go in there. Sheesh!
Austin, Houston, and Dallas ISDs have said that children can start school when they get here. It will create some semblance of structure and normalcy in their lives for a time. We are ready with clothes and dishes and so forth (don't have money and aren't so sure that money goes to the people anyhow, so we intend to bring items), and when they get here, we'll take the stuff to Reunion Arena and other Dallas shelters. WE are doing what little we can. So what's the delay?
I keep returning to the conclusion that the government hopes that by benign neglect and "oh, we're trying so hard, we're on our way" delay tactics, they'll kill off more of the poor and disabled and so forth. Our gov't has become out of touch, made up of mostly those of privilege, unfortunately. They are so clueless and don't know how life really is. It is the usual situation as found in the years before the French Revolution--starving the poor out ("Let them eat Cheetos")--and before many other revolts. I fear that this might start some kind of riot or whatever, and who could really blame them? We have GOT to get some more military and rescue ops out there NOW to avoid a bigger disaster. Up until now I've believed that they were doing their best, but now I'm having serious doubts. This is uncool.
Prayers are going out. I wish God would make an exception and do a Parting-of-the-Red-Sea miracle here. I realize that would go against the rule that we need faith alone. I see that. I just wish we could make one exception here. I know that the side of Good is working in secret and is going to make a way. I just have to have faith that it's going to happen soon and soonest.
My earworm changed. At first it was Led Zep, "When the Levee Breaks, you'll have no place to stay." Then it was Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, "Five Feet High and Risin'." Now it's Pete Seeger's "All My Trials." "If religion were a thing that money could buy . . . the rich would live, and the poor would die." (sigh)
And "Wade in the Water," an old spiritual that we learned in second grade.
"God's a-gonna trouble the water."
I just conferred with my doctor's nurse, the receptionist, and the bank teller, and we have come to a scary conclusion.
The government is TRYING to kill the poor people.
That's right. Because they are "poor" and so forth, the gov't is dragging its feet and not doing anything to rescue the people off roofs or pick them up out of the Superdome and what-have-you. Why are they not dropping UNICEF-style CARE packages of water and K-rations? Why are they not mobilizing more of the military (the ones they haven't sent overseas--hey, I SAID they needed to keep more military at HOME, lest we NEED THEM)? What is the big problem? Elderly people and babies are outside the Superdome right now, and buses are lined up on the interstate waiting, and Texas has done everything but offer to teleport them to Macy's with the Magic ComeGetCha wand, but now there is "some security problem," which is a bunch of 3@$&#^$ crap, excuse my special characters. There was a gunshot--bad, from the criminal element. But this could be worked around. Instead, they are delaying the loading of the buses. That is punishing the wrong people! These are not the looters! These are the ones trying to hang on. One lady with three toddlers in her lap, one man holding up a tiny infant--calling for help.
Harry Connick, Jr., who apparently stayed behind in the French Quarter, has just gone over to the Superdome and called in to Ron Reagan's show to say that people are on the verge of death from dehydration (infants and elderly, especially), and that the evacuation has to start. They need bottled water. They have to have food. It's simply incomprehensible that our "preparedness" fails for FOUR DAYS here. People were holding up their babies and toddlers and shouting at the cameras--I wished I could reach in and snatch those children (if not the entire family) through the screen to safety, where they could sit in my backyard wading pool and play with "Snoopy" bath toys, then come inside for peanut butter and jelly and watch "Maisy" on TV. I can't believe our FEMA units are not doing more. I realize there's water on the roads, but hey, the LOOTERS supposedly are running around like gangbusters, so maybe some of the good guys could get big wheels as well and go in there. Sheesh!
Austin, Houston, and Dallas ISDs have said that children can start school when they get here. It will create some semblance of structure and normalcy in their lives for a time. We are ready with clothes and dishes and so forth (don't have money and aren't so sure that money goes to the people anyhow, so we intend to bring items), and when they get here, we'll take the stuff to Reunion Arena and other Dallas shelters. WE are doing what little we can. So what's the delay?
I keep returning to the conclusion that the government hopes that by benign neglect and "oh, we're trying so hard, we're on our way" delay tactics, they'll kill off more of the poor and disabled and so forth. Our gov't has become out of touch, made up of mostly those of privilege, unfortunately. They are so clueless and don't know how life really is. It is the usual situation as found in the years before the French Revolution--starving the poor out ("Let them eat Cheetos")--and before many other revolts. I fear that this might start some kind of riot or whatever, and who could really blame them? We have GOT to get some more military and rescue ops out there NOW to avoid a bigger disaster. Up until now I've believed that they were doing their best, but now I'm having serious doubts. This is uncool.
Prayers are going out. I wish God would make an exception and do a Parting-of-the-Red-Sea miracle here. I realize that would go against the rule that we need faith alone. I see that. I just wish we could make one exception here. I know that the side of Good is working in secret and is going to make a way. I just have to have faith that it's going to happen soon and soonest.
My earworm changed. At first it was Led Zep, "When the Levee Breaks, you'll have no place to stay." Then it was Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, "Five Feet High and Risin'." Now it's Pete Seeger's "All My Trials." "If religion were a thing that money could buy . . . the rich would live, and the poor would die." (sigh)
And "Wade in the Water," an old spiritual that we learned in second grade.
"God's a-gonna trouble the water."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 10:23 am (UTC)I've been singing'On Christ the solid rock I stand' myself.
When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil
On christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 01:00 pm (UTC)