City of New Orleans

Good Mornin', America, how are ya? It's certainly hard to complain about anything right now after watching in horror as the situation in N.O. continues to deteriorate. I dreamt about the flooding last night, or rather visions of what I had seen on the news before bed haunted me in my sleep; and I woke up confident that the worst was over. For how could the images I've seen splashed across the national media not initialize *immediate* relief of hunger, thirst and the acrid, unsanitary squalor at the conference center and Superdome, which has become more like Thunderdome.

The looting is not what needs to be targeted right now. Food and water are necessities. Period. And people are not going to watch their families starve if they can help it in the least. Regarding electronics? Let em take em! They won't get very far with a television anyway, and stores are covered for insurance and such. The salvaging of material goods is at the bottom of the heirarchy of needs here. Violence of course needs to be dealt with but with the understanding that these are mostly good people trapped in a horrendous situation. Some bloggers out there are writing that they don't "deserve" our help. But those out there raping, murdering or shooting at others are a small handful and were already the dregs of New Orleans. To attribute the acts of a minority to the tragic majority is an excuse to either look the other way or use excessive force. I can't figure out which. The priority seems to have shifted from the rescue of suffering Americans to "restoring order" and "taking back the streets." This isn't just some demonstration or concert that has gotten out of hand, and it's not the time for the police or National Guard to flex its muscle, and drive around the "camps" with large guns and no food or water. Most of the violence that has erupted is a direct consequence of the suffering. People are hungry, dirty, thirsty, scared and desperate. Why do I see footage of National Guard trucks driving by these people very quickly? Where are they going? Why don't they have people in their trucks taking them to wherever they're going? *All* energies, *all* resources, *all* manpower should be focused on getting nourishment and medical care to the people *living* at these awful camps.

I saw on the news last night a cop arresting a family for stealing a car. How dare they? Does the power trip never end with this bunch? These people are trying to LIVE. They are not taking some abandoned Taurus to go joyriding. They are trying to escape N.O. alive! These cops handcuffed both crying parents, and then I saw another cop holding the children. They'll probably be separated from them. To protect and to serve, right?

I've been reading about refugees, as you can officially call them, arriving at the Houston Astrodome after a 12-hour bus ride to find that the Astrodome is too full to accept them, even though most of them have family inside who took earlier trips. So they're going to shuttle them somewhere else. Another sports arena. And to make matters worse, they SEARCHED these people upon entering the Astrodome, when they should have had food and bottles of water for them at the door! I see that they are ultimately looking for guns, but it just seems both ironic and insulting to search and evaluate personal possessions after what these folks have lost.

I realize the vast resources it would take to "free" these people, but a disaster on our own soil should be what our money and any reserves are for! You always hear of these billion-dollar relief efforts--this situation certainly calls for that. But I get the feeling that once America saw exactly who they were being asked to help, it didn't seem so urgent. Other disasters I see on tv, such as the tsunami, show relief coming quickly, around the clock and in droves. The media isn't helping by portraying the situation as "anarchic" and making the people out to be thugs, when it's actually only a small percentage of people who are losing it. And can you blame them? They had nothing before. Now they are in the negative.