Sorry to drag it out again.

Gee, Heather! You rotten person! We were all delighted and happy and had forgotten all about the massive human tragedy you're doing you best to ease in some way...

I'm sorry you can't get through. It must be maddening and terrifying all at once.

Oh, Heather, honey. I just want to hug the crap out of you right now.

It's really frustrating. At work today, there were some people discussing it in the halls (not from our org, but one located in our offices). They were asking why we didn't make the levees higher, and why people stayed, and why we didn't do this or that, and look at Florida, they had a disaster plan. I wanted to jump out of my chair and throttle them, and instead I just cried.

I'm going to whitefont, because I know overtly political or whatever this is about to be will upset some people, but dear lord if I don't get it off my chest I'm going to 'splode. We don't have the gaurdsmen to send to control security, they're all off fighting in a war, in fact many of our able bodied men are. We're a fucking poor state, and that tends to be how our young people pay for college. Again, we're a fucking poor state, and if we could've paid ourselves to make sure the coast could withstand above a cat 3, we would have, but the administration decided it wasn't a priority, just like they seem to think responding isn't a priority. *We* can only donate and volunteer and help as best we can. Bush can mobilize troops, accept the help that other countries were willing, it seems, to offer, anything. (Mr. H's cousin was up here with us, he's in the marines and was stationed at Belle Chasse- why not have them at the ready? Why the fuck were they in Texas?) That godawful speech, and still the smirk. How did the goddamed head of homeland security not know what was going down at the convention center? Why are places with refugees having to figure out what to do with them on their own? Why is this all piecemeal and patchwork? And looters? I can't blame anyone who's taking what they need, and people who are taking other stuff- at least from the stores? I'm just not sure it matters. I mean, right this moment it's all useless anyway. What has value in the city? Tv, radios? Who else is going to use it? I suppose if you were able to get out of the city, you might be able to sell it, and I'm torn between thinking, well at least you'll have something to live on, and who the hell is going to want to buy a tv or radio that smells like sewage and has been dragged through flood waters, or if it wasn't from one of the parts that was completely flooded, who the hell within walking or driving distance is going to have the inclination to buy non-nessecities? Looting homes is a whole nother thing. You know though, on the other hand, once you've pretty much realized that no one really gives a damn about you, and the whole place has decended into chaos, it must feel like one of those post-apocolyptic movies where the scrappy band of ethnicly diverse with the strapping hero, who's had this disaster forced on him and finds himself strangly attracted to the pretty blonde whatever roam the streets and happen upon what seems in the midst of all the crap to be an oasis of luxury, and so they go into the abandoned mansion, and live like kings if only for a night. I don't want to Monday morning quarterback, because I prefer the defense, but couldn't the president at least have had some military at the ready? some sort of national emergency plan in place? When I say we're poor, I really really mean it. A job that pays $11 an hour is considered a pretty sweet deal even in semi-metropolitan Shreveport, and we have maybe 3 or 4 of those kinds of cities. If the whole thing is our fault and the relief is going to be left up to us, I'm saying "Come on in Canada! Jamaica, welcome my brothers! By the way, Mr. president, I'd like a few army, marine and naval units, by like Sunday- LAST SUNDAY."

I think I'm done with the ranting now.

Oh, Heather, honey. I just want to hug the crap out of you right now.

Needs to be said again. And again and again.

Also, I just found a ginormous ariel of the city, so I can see exactly what's underwater and what's not. It's oddly comforting. I mean you see your friend's house underwater, but you look up the street and you're all, but hey, that bar we went to for the bachelorette/bachelor party is still there!

That does sound comforting, Heather-- little bits of familar among everything else.

Heather, I think in some ways it's an off shoot of the "American Dream" rhetoric. You know, "I came to this country with 12 cents in my pocket and now I'm a billionaire because I just pulled myself up by my bootstraps and made it happen." It's...I don't know the right word for it...maybe a certain kind of arrogance?

I actually started to type something up before and then closed the window before I posted it but. Last year, when the hurricanes hit Florida, I heard a lot of bitching about the people who didn't get out while they had the chance or the people who were looking for federal aid. At the time, it enraged me. (Truth be told, it still does.) Because all I could think of was the trailer park a few blocks from my parents' house, populated almost entirely by senior citizens, who were scraping by as it was and had no where to go and how that storm devastated them. For those that even lived through it.

It's like they need to make it the victims' fault because then it couldn't possibly happen to them or something. I dunno. It makes sense in my head but I can't get it out correctly.

Also, I don't know if you've considered talking to anyone about this but a friend of mine on LJ posted about her 9/11 experience and encouraged anyone who's been personally impacted by Katrina to consider counseling. Obviously, we're an outlet for you but I worry that you might be trying to censor yourself and it could be helpful for you to also talk to someone with whom you don't feel you have to filter your thoughts or feelings.

It's likely true. I'm having a few people from home over this weekend, and I'm wondering if it won't be nice for the 4 of us to just sit around, drink and bitch and cry.

Thanks y'all. I've got to get to bed. It's nearly 2:30. So glad for a long weekend.

Dennis Hastert thinks the Royals should be bulldozed and not rebuilt.

Snerk

And again with unearthly interludes - Jupiter and Venus gettin' cozy with each other this evening.

I always hoped those two crazy kids would get together.

I caught the last few minutes of Ted Koppel's interview of the director of FEMA, and was delighted to see Ted kick Fed ass!!

That rocked! He was asking all the questions I wanted to ask and called bullshit on the lame answers.

LAST SUNDAY.

Amen, Heather. I know Smirky doesn't watch the news and it seems the FEMA director doesn't either, but you'd think someone would've caught a weather report. Busses would've been a hell of a lot easier before the streets were full of water.

I'm wondering if it won't be nice for the 4 of us to just sit around, drink and bitch and cry.

Catharsis is good for the soul.

I caught the last few minutes of Ted Koppel's interview of the director of FEMA, and was delighted to see Ted kick Fed ass!!

I just watched the interview and Ted was impressive. I especially liked his, You were surprised that so many didn't evacuate? Why were you surprised? How did you think they were getting out? It's not like you sent anyone to go get them.