Submitted by Gaara on Fri, 09/02/2005 - 03:48.
{DISCLAIMER: Away from the game I am a fairly politically active guy with a Democratic / Progressive / Liberal persuasion. I will do my best to refrain from demonstrating my contempt for the current administration and the state in which they have lead our country. However this post is slightly political and some of my views will be pronounced to display my justification for such an article. I understand not everyone has the same beliefs as I do though this is not setup to be a debate on stance. Rather... I feel the subject is universally understood to be more important than personal bias.}
Everyone of us has by now heard of and felt personal effects of Hurricane Katrina. For those of us outside of the direct path of the storm we are feeling the whiplash effects financially at that pumps. The main reason however I am writing this is for the the ones that are dealing with the destruction first hand. This the most devastating natural disaster that the US has ever seen and one of the 3 most devastating hurricanes on record. The people on the ground are leader less.... seeing as how our President has deployed such a vast amount of our national guard (our "NATIONAL Guard" the ones that are supposed to be stationed here protecting us, our borders, and disaster relief) overseas, and he himself spending three weeks on vacation because "Hey, I have a life too you know". We have no organization on the ground for evacuation and relief! Situational living i.e. mass housing, schools, city buildings, hotels, hospitals all have rapidly deteriorating infrastructures that are at the moment only just barely supporting life. Resources are dwindling if even existent at this point. No food, no water, and over flowing toilets. People sleeping on damp floors, highway sections that aren't flooded, and rooftops. Reports of prison escapees roaming free in the devastation. Hospitals have patients pouring in while they have no power for equipment treatment and sanitation. They have no running water to even wash their hands with. Famine, disease, and illness spreading quickly.
Long story short we are in the midst of third world conditions in the US and there is nothing that can be done with a leader who doesn't care enough to cut his vacation short and has never truly cared about quote "Homeland Security". We as the American people are pulling together to support ourselves with or without the help of our negligent administration. It is absolutely amazing what we as a country have done in the last 72 hrs to help these American Refugees. In the last 48 hrs alone the Red Cross has received 7 million dollars in charity (that figure was reported this morning and I am confident has risen by a huge amount). People are opening their hearts and their doors to adopt entire families into their homes. Families that may be homeless for several months. This is the kind of respectable stand up display of kindness and caring that America can pride itself in. However there is so sooo much more that will need to be done to keep entire families from starving or dehydrating literally to death. The only law enforcement is extremely out numbered, we have our remaining national guardsmen and coast guard being deployed (way too late, but they are coming). The current recovery and relief is largely due to the Red Cross, and other organizations of the nature. I will not beg anyone or try to guilt anyone into donating or volunteering but those two links you will find information for both. I don't want to go too much further with this though there is much much more to be said. This however not being my outlet for political talk I will draw the line at these last few links to reference reading and listening.
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FEMA sucks
I know, not like this is big news or anything, but read this:
Vis Maior's Journeys
http://maior.samhart.net/
Agreed 100%
I will fall in line right behind your thoughts. I tend to not classify myself into a group, but stand for anyone whose agenda is the improvement of *all* mankind, not just those who can afford it. The people devastated by this storm have absolutely nothing except whatever possesions they have in their hands. We have just heard from my mother-in-law whose home sustained very heavy damage and was not released from the shelter until today, and she is attempting to make it out today by car. She has a bag of clothes, her car and half a tank of gas and is going to drive as far as she can. We had to pull resources together to locate a friends a long the way who can provide her with a gas can full of fuel because no gas stations in that region are operational.
The first waves of refugees started arriving in Atlanta last night, and our lawfirm instantly began organizing relief efforts. Everyone brought in clothes, baby food, toiletries, blankets, shoes, etc this morning, and I spent time with some of our employees this afternoon boxing them all up to be taken to the shelter. Our firm is also making a donation of $10,000 and will match any donation made by employees up to $25, dollar for dollar. My point is: Our country's people are pulling together to help these people, not the administrators. We sat and watched while his vileness enjoyed his vacation two days into this disaster, and then everyone decided to take action. We may have a spineless leader, but our people's resolve can not change, no matter who is in office. They are not looking out for our best interest, so we have to rely on our people to step up. I have even considered cancelling my vacation at the end of this month to volunteer time in NO to clean up. Not exactly how you want to spend your time off, but this disaster is of a catastrophic magnitude.
For a man who can call special sessions of congress to try and pass resolutions on the fly, he sure had to "Get a handle of the situation" before he checked on us. There was little hesitation to land on an aircraft carrier to celebrate our "victory" against Iraq......
To quote Michael Moore this morning :
Dear Mr. Bush:
"Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?"
Maybe this incident will show the rest of the nation just how clueless our fearless leader really is and will allow them to stop making excuses for his actions, or lack there of.
My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to all of you, my fellow brothers and sisters. Not just the victims, but to everyone who is sitting by the phone hoping for a call to ease their minds. Honor to those who are sacrificing their own lives to rescue the victims.
And a plague to those who seek to gain off of this tragedy by looting, raping, and shooting at rescue patrols. There is only one punishment fit for a person who would shoot into a children's hospital to rob them of their prescriptions: Damnation of your soul. I do not know a man's fate, but I can not think of a penance great enough to redeem souls who are capable of these deeds.
Please do something....anything. Old pair of clothes, extra can of food, even just a $1 donation. These people will be trying to build new lives, jobs, etc while being transpanted into a new city....they need our kindness.
Brian
have you heard
The 'Oil Baron' himself proposed that the financial relief to be attributed by way of "Low Interest Loans"?????!!!!!
"We will cut them a deal in this time of crisis" he says.
I am absolutly outraged. The man is not human, he is so withdrawn from reality... This is an impeachment worthy offense on our country and yet because his crownies have control of the house and the senate we will have to deal with this for another 3 years. It makes me sick.
*I'm sorry I said I wouldn't bring my bias too far into this but I can not stand by voiceless*
J.
We can all do more
Thank you for your frank and unabashed entry, Gaara/Raytien.
I, too, am fairly liberal and have ranted at length elsewhere about similar subjects. And while not everyone may share our views on the current administration, we can all agree that this is a terrible tragedy and that we can all do more to help.
The simple fact of the matter is, even if we had a perfect administration (which is impossible) they would feel overwhelmed by such a terrible calamity. Gaara/Raytien may not urge others directly to try and contribute to such causes, but I certainly will. Even if it is just donating blood to the American Red Cross, or minimizing the amount of time spent driving (car-pooling, working from home, etc), we all can do something.
Vis Maior's Journeys
http://maior.samhart.net/
tis' true
I am honored to stand among like-minded individuals, thank you.