Goddamn it, Dubya

I'm pissed. I am so appalled at the misery and pain that so many Americans are suffering in the New Orleans area right now. Why is it that we can mobilize so quickly to wage war on/in other countries whose resources we greedily lust after, and we can drop water and food for the residents of said countries, but we cannot get our own folks off of a roof for five days. Cannot get people any food or fresh water. We cannot save young girls from getting raped in their places that are supposed to "shelter" them. Fuck.

What is wrong with our government that they are being so slow-witted and limited in their response to this disaster? The Red Cross is organizing the biggest relief operation in their history, but we do not have enough National Guardsmen to keep law and order in the midst of this chaos. We are so daft. Even the NY Times has an article about how the disaster response seems to be less than deserved because the majority of those suffering are black and poor. Reading various articles on this topic, I was struck by how many made a point of mentioning that lots of residents chose not to leave. Like they were stubborn and just wouldn't do what was logical. Well, there is the fact that a vast portion in the poorest neighborhoods (some of the very hardest hit) did not have cars. So how would you evacuate your family, especially if you have very small children or infirm grandparents?

Earlier today I was going through the many photos on the Washington Post's site (certainly the best place for photos, and some of the best coverage, I think). I was sitting at my desk at work, and doing what I could to not fully start crying, seeing pictures of little kids crying for their family members who had died in front of them.

And it's all going to get worse before it gets better, considering how much water is still standing and how crazy insane so many people have gone. Does human nature have to always win out? Why do we always end up back at Lord of the Flies behavior?

Dammit. But I guess it just comes down to the fact that I will make my donation to The Red Cross, will say a prayer as best I can whenever I think of all these peole hurting so badly, and hope things normalize sooner than I think they will. The good news is that the Red Cross is getting record numbers of hits on their site, and donations to match. I trust them to do a hell of a lot more good on the ground than Dubya will. Bastard.