September 01, 2005

Sad Frustration

I'm so damn

I was so happy to find out that my pirate is okay. I also heard from my friend Moise last night. He lives in New Orleans, but they were able to get to the safety of a house out in the country. Unfortunately, he can't get back into his house until Monday, and then he's got to go in a large group because they've been warned that there are heavily armed bands of looters in that area. He's hoping to salvage whatever hasn't been destroyed or stolen from his home.

The news made me angry as well as sad last night. Some official told the reporters from MSNBC that they would not differentiate between people looting to survive and those doing so out of greed and the hope of making a profit later on selling stolen goods. How the fuck can people that WE elected decide for us that someone going into a semi-demolished grocery store for diapers and food is a criminal on the level of the guy running out of there with a cart full of DVD players!? I agree with Candoor that this whole situation is unacceptable. I don't want a dime of my tax dollars going to rebuild Iraq while people in New Orleans are in mortal danger. And I sure as hell don't ever again want to see the police forcing someone to abandon a grocery cart filled with the basic necessities for survival. This is a country with more than enough fucking money and military force to get those people airlifted out of there. The government needs to focus ALL of it's efforts on getting those people to safety. I can't even imagine being trapped on my roof for two or three days with no food, and the thought of doing so with small children is heartbreaking. And if I was forced to wade through flood waters and crawl in the window of a grocery store just to get food for my family, I think I'd have reacted pretty violently to some asshole of a cop making me drop that food to rot on the ground.

I wish there were something positive that we could all channel this helpless anger and sadness into, and I hope that soon they'll announce and publicize more ways for us to help.

Have a good Thursday and thanks for reading.

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