I just read something that shatters me on the Tribune website. Their TV blogger, Maureen Ryan, gives the transcript of an NBC photojournalist's report from the NO convention center (it was on NBC Nightly News early this evening). People were instructed to go to the convention center, so thousands of them did. And yet apparently there was no thought given to what would happen next. These people have no food, no water, no support, no information. People are dying of dehydration. Babies dying. Adults sitting dead in their lawn chairs. Right here in America, folks. What are these helpless people supposed to do? How will they survive? Certainly I don't condone the use of violence, but the whole situation is violent at its core. The violence of nature, compounded by poor planning and grossly inadequate disaster response. People are dying of thirst while trapped by filthy flood waters. Right here in America. It is just a complete shock that three and a half days after a hurricane hit, so many people could still be left utterly helpless.
Don't forget to go to the Red Cross site and donate what you can. I know it will be too little and too late for many people, but what else can we do from afar?
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Some clean water, hot showers, and electricity would go a long way in easing the situation. Why is it so hard to get these things up and running? It sounds like they aren't coming back in the foreseeable future.
I gave twice as much money as I gave after the tsunami, and I still feel so helpless.
I struck dumb by the utter disaster in N.O. And I don't mean the hurricane. These babies they're showing on TV will be dead by Sunday--when FEMA man said in an upbeat I'm in denial way--the National guard will be in place by Sunday...yeah, thanks buddy. How can they not send in bus after bus to haul these people out...leave those who refuse and deal with them later, but I can't bear to see these children and their parents. Giving money is good, but not being able to do anything with my two hands highlights just how useless I am in this situation.
Me, too. I'm soo very tempted to drive down there in a rented van and pack people up to take somewhere, even back home with me if I need to. It won't be much, but it's something!
It's worse having to watch babies die on tv. I don't think a mother should ever have to choose between her survival or that of her child(ren).
I just posted a really long update to my blog because all this has been stirring in my brain for a while now. Seeing the moms with very near-death children yesterday on the news though broke me. Seriously.
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