us against us....its a very sad time

Well by now we are all fairly saturated with the horrible situation in New Orleans and the rest of the places destroyed by Katrina. Nothing we've ever been through could prepare us for what we've seen and heard this last week. There are not words to describe how sad we are for the people and families that Katrina has destroyed. To have lost everything, homes, schools, businesses, and many, many lives, in one fell swoop is very hard to comprehend.

But no matter what I get told about the situation, I can't reconcile in my mind the fact that our National Guard is there fully armed defending us against....us. The only time I remember seeing this is in full scale riot situations, like South LA, during the Rodney King thing. And then it was short lived and controlled quickly. Seeing National Guardsmen fully armed against people that are preying on their devastated neighbors is just not a thing I can digest easily.

The world is watching, and commenting, unfortunately, on how we are handling this. I've read comments from all over the world..and it basically boils down to...what the hell is wrong over there? Did President Bush wait too long? Did he wait at all or did it just take too long to mobilize? Does it matter that most of these people were offered a way out before the storm hit? Does it matter that in reality it takes time to move equipment, mobilize troops, get supplies together, and actually make some progress on something like this? Does it matter that New Orleans has known this was a possiblity all along, that one day the 'big one' could obliterate the city? And yet, Mayor Nagin only blames the federal govt. No, none of this matters now. Bush and his administration will bear the brunt of the blame for how all this went down. And some of that blame will be well place I'm sure. But I'm also reasonably sure that no matter how quickly troops were brought in, how fast the decisions were made, there would be just as much outrage at the handling of it.

I've been involved in 2 situations like this. They were not nearly so horrible or devastating (except to the people that lost everything) but disasters, nonetheless. Twice since I've had my job, floods have paralyzed Houston and the surrounding areas. Most recently Tropical Storm Allison put Houston under water, not unlike Katrina did to New Orleans, but with lesser wind damage. And luckily, the water drained off fairly quickly in most areas. I worked very closely with FEMA and the local authorities trying to contact people that were on streets where every house had 5-9 feet of water in it. They were out there in boats knocking on every door, trying to reach people that were stranded, most of them very elderly and totally in shock. Then I dealt with these victims face to face as they tried to get their water wells cleaned up. We even had our children at the lab helping with anything they could while we stayed open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. So I've seen first hand how hard it is to even find a place to start with victims like this.

My point with all this is...maybe the blame culture we live in needs to take a break and just concentrate on getting things taken care of.

I have never been a fan of the press, and this disaster just confirms all my reasons why. It will be a long, long time before I get the pictures out of my mind. Seeing a cameraman from CNN keep his camera on a very small baby sleeping in a carseat on the grass...sweating, in only a diaper, with a pacifier...absolutely no protection from the sun. Why didn't he put the camera down and move that baby to the shade somewhere? Even if it was with his own body...he could have helped. But no, he just kept broadcasting that while the reporter complained that Bush wasnt doing enough. In my mind that was inexcusable, horrific sensationalism. I guess dreams of a Pulitzer make them able to sleep at night.

I hope and pray that the people rescued from New Orleans are able to regain something of their old life, and start new ones that will be even better.

This is an catastrophic tragedy, made so much worse by inhuman crimes against ourselves. It's such a sad time.