9.01.2005
I don't normally pray (this is a rant)
I don't feel that my goddess demands it. However, there are times when one can do nothing else. We have family who were unable to get out of the New Orleans area. Last we heard they had taken shelter in a brick house 3 blocks from the ocean in Bay St. Louis. We realize that they could be fine, just unable to contact anyone. But everyday it seems the news from that area just gets worse. Guns being stolen, law enforcement and military and evacuation personnel being shot at. The dead left to rot, crowded in with the living. Busses that are supposed to come, but arrive late or not at all. Food and water locked away, and the people who break in to distribute them labeled looters (I make a difference between breaking into food and water stores to distribute them to the hungry and thirsting, and people breaking in to stores and storage for personal gain or personal stockpiling) President Bush shipping in National Guardsmen from other areas around the country. Yet, 6,000 National Guardsmen originally from that area are in Iraq! 6,000 men and their equipment were diverted from their posts -- from what they signed on for -- to go fight in a foreign country that is not and never was going to attack us. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed that the NATIONAL Guard was to defend our NATION. Defense, not offense. Our nation, not other nations. They should have been left here to serve their country on their country's soil. And now when we need them the most, they aren't here. They could have been mobilized and on the job days ago whereas now the people in the New Orleans area have to wait while reserves come in from other areas of the country.
You know, the Tsunami was a much bigger disaster, with no advance warning, in countries with far fewer resources, and yet the organization and relief efforts there were so much more efficient than what we've got going on down in New Orleans. And I keep thinking: the biggest damage, the most devastating thing wasn't the storm itself, but the levees that broke. What if the paranoia of our leaders had manifested itself there? Government officials are likening this to 9/11. What if it really HAD been a terrorist act? What if the levees had been blown up instead of destroyed by the storm? I'm not suggesting that I think that they were, but this certainly demonstates how even with our paranoia, an entirely new government department completely devoted to "homeland security", and the big talk of our government officials, we are still completely unprepared for major disasters and/or terrorist acts. I am ashamed and frightened and desperately worried about the people down there.
If any of my posts in the next few days seem flippant. It's because I'm trying to distract myself.
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You know, i hadn't really thought about all of this from that angle. You make a damn good point, and i am glad you said it. They've been trying really hard to make it seem like it's no big deal that the National Guard troops aren't there, but 6000??? i can't even imagine the difference it would make...
keeping your family in my thoughts. i'm not a prayin' gal myself...but since i'm a born and raised new orleanian....it's ALL i can think about. it's all soooo fucked up right now. but my family is safe. and hoping the same for yours.
What if HAD been a terrorist act, you ask?
Federal rescue efforts would have been much greater, with emergency personnel heading in there the day of, not a few days after like they did in this case. Bush would have dropped everything and led the charge, instead of attending concerts, playing golf, and eating cake while people died.
That's what would have happened had it been a terror attack.
Oh, yeah, and he'd have found a way to tie it to Iraq. Guaranteed.