So far I have resisted ranting about the tragedy in New Orleans.
It’s about time I started.
Alan Alda’s character on M*A*S*H once described his unit commander as “it’s like being on a burning ship and you rush up to the deck only to find Daffy Duck is the captain.”
That is exactly how I feel about the United States of America right now. Actually I’ve felt that way for several years now, but now the fire has hit the ammunition magazines.
When George Bush took over the country in 2000 the mantra was “the adults are now in charge.”
Excuse me, but I have seen no evidence of it over the last — what is it? Almost five years now.
And now this. The response to the disaster that is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina apparently is to wander around, golf, play country singer, and promise that something will be done.
Something is going to be done all right, and Congress had better start doing it tonight.
They had better start bringing the survivors water, food and medicine.
They had better start evacuating them.
They had better start finding them places to live.
They had better start finding stress and grievance counselors.
They had better start asking for help from outside the country.
They had better start repealing tax increases to pay for the disaster response.
THEY HAD BETTER DO SOMETHING INSTEAD OF JUST MAKING IT LOOK LIKE THEY’RE DOING SOMETHING, WHICH THIS GOVERNMENT HAS DONE FOR FIVE YEARS NOW.
Because I’ll tell you what will happen if they don’t.
The displaced Orleanois* will have nothing to do, nowhere to go, no food to eat, nothing to lose and no reason not to take things into their own hands.
The slide down the tubes that this country started Election Night 2000 will accelerate. And I don’t think for a second that just because there’s a mountain range between me and New Orleans, that I’m not going to be affected.
.
There. I think I feel better. A little. But not nearly enough.
I wish I had a story to tell to help smooth things out. But this is the stuff of which stories are made. And not all of them are going to be as poetic as Evangeline.
Travel the net and find the lists of resources coming. It’s staggering. Too much perhaps “in spite of” rather than “because of”, but moving nonetheless. The very last thing we need right now is appearing with too much regularity on the blogs: bullshit ranting, agitation, and screaming in high volume against the dark.
People better begin to remove their heads from their asses and realize that as we write there are at least 100,000 other people driving, sailing, and flying into the affected areas. On top of that pile is a federal agency trying to coordinate 26 other federal agencies, in addition to the local, regional, and state agencies and ngos.
The FACTs are that the levees broke, NO flooded, the Gulf Coast is a utility, infrastructure, and transportation cluster-f*ck, and people are dying.
Being frustrated is normal. Being angry and depressed is normal. Go ahead and get it out of your collective systems, then f*cking click a link and donate, or call your local agency – they need volunteers – or provide some ideas for solutions.
I guess this is part of the grieving process – make that it is part of the process. But that doesn’t make it right to politicize.
will probably make another donation when I get home, and will see if there’s anything else I can do (like if Red Cross will take my blood).
So I think I’m entitled to be pissed at the clusterf*ck that’s known as the Bush Administration. We’ve got billions of dollars to spend on a war that should never have been started in the first place…but we don’t have the money to keep our citizens from being flooded out of their homes. We have the will to cut taxes on the richest Americans, but don’t have the money to educate our children for a 21st century economy. We have the time to lobby Congress to eliminate the inheritance tax, but can’t figure out how to keep our own citizens safe on the nation’s transit systems. And our president has the time to take more vacation time than most Americans get in their freakin’ LIVES, but can’t find the time to explain to one grieving mother what is the noble cause du jour for which her son gave his life.
Here endeth the Rant Du Jour…
You’re right, rba, people are dying down there. I’ve already donated. I’m willing to help. In fact, I’m on a list of people who could provide help as soon as the word is given.
And the list was told to sit tight.
The problem is that no one seems to be in charge. I know that in a disaster everything is magnified tenfold, but it just seems like there is help that is waiting to go in if the word is givin, but not only is the word not being given, the people in charge don’t know what’s needed or where to go. There’s no coordination. There’s no commuciation. The man in charge of rescuing people from the convention center didn’t even know they were there.
So yes, it’s frustrating, and yes, I’m getting it out of my system. And I hope to do more with my currently limited resources. But it just seems like, other than donating to the Red Cross and waiting to hear that the ham radio nets are ready to kick into action, not only isn’t there anything I can do, no one knows what needs to be done.
Which is why I want someone to take charge. Someone with actual organizational skills rather than a political hack. Someone who can get the manpower and money and materiel to where it’s needed, doing what it needs to do.
George Bush is supposed to be working for us, and for our elected officials in Congress, and not the other way around. If he won’t do his job it’s high time someone else started doing it for him.
As for politicization . . . well, it’s past time for that. Bush already started the process by saying not to politicize this. The old “Don’t think of an elephant” trick. And you KNOW the Republicans are going to milk this for everything they can. I’m tired of Democrats standing by while that happens.
I know, I know, this is another rant, freely given and worth every cent of what you paid. But I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Sterling Newberry posted an excellent diary, currently on the recommended list over at Daily Kos, about what you’d be hearing right now if we had a real president, for instance.