New Orleans: Stop Blaming and Start HELPING

I have been reading bogs and newsgroups in a state of amazement. I am amazed at how people react to a situation based on their own personal politics. I'm willing to bet that most (if not all) who use this occassion to bash Bush are people who did not vote for him. On the flipside, those who are defending him are most likely those who voted for him. I am amazed that at a time when we should be focusing our energy, focus, prayers, money, blood and any other resource we have to the victims, that we instead resort to petty politics and finger pointing.

There will be many, MANY investigations by Congress and whomever to determine what went wrong and how to fix it in the future.

In my estimation, I do believe that we may have been ill prepared for a disaster of this magnitude...an entire city was under water for crying out loud. It seems as though the the levee break was the overwhelming suprise that we were unable to adequately respond to. If I remember the coverage properly (from Fox, CNN, MSNBC, etc.) the hurricane did far less damage than we thought and the focus was on Alabama and Mississippi who were hit harder...then the levee broke...

My thoughts while watching the coverage and seeing many poor, minority people trapped was that we needed a better plan to evacuate. People who do not have cars COULD not evacuate and a plan needs to be in place to deal with that situation.

I will withhold judgement on the situation until the investigations are complete. Right now, I worry about the victims, the families and anyone effected by the tragedy. I hope more people can put the "us vs. them" political BS aside and just friggin HELP OUR FELLOW AMERICANS.

I was just in New Orleans about 7 months ago and I recall the wonder of the place. The woman who taught the Cajun cooking class that I took, the man who shucked oysters for us at a restaurant and hung out with us, the small bar owner that gave us a test of his signature concoction, I remember them and fear for them all. I also fear that those who survive are going to live in a place that doesn't resember the New Orleans that I remember. The vast percentage of development that will need to be torn down and rebuilt makes me worry about the architecture and personality of the city. I hope that doesn't die with the many citizens who made that city unique and amazing. These are things that I fear. I don'[t have time for the paranoia that the President or the Director of FEMA or the Governor or the Mayor or Congress or the Corps of Army Engineers, or the people who could have left but didn't are to blame. In fact, all of them may share certain portion of the blame, but NOW is not the time and POLITICAL BIAS is not the criterea for such conclusions. That will all come in time.

I'm truly amazed that we care more about blame than helping one another.

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