Thoughts on Katrina

It's been difficult for me to think about this disaster and even more difficult to write about it.
It's not that I've been directly affected: I live in Pennsylvania on high ground; I have no family or friends in the area; I've never even visited the area . . .

("I've never even visited the area . . . " How sad that now, if I do go to New Orleans one day, it will be A.K. - "After Katrina" - and it won't be the same city as B.K.)

I was in Seattle with Heather when the storm approached the Gulf Coast. We heard ongoing reports of its potentially devastating effects. Reporters were already in the area. I remember saying to Heather, "I have a very bad feeling about this one. This is going to terrible." I hate it when I'm right about stuff like this.


I cannot believe that this government did as little as it did for such a long time.

I cannot believe that the President was so ill-informed as to what was happening in this area.

I cannot believe that he was so cavalier in his comments: such as wanting to sit on Trent Lott's new porch - when so many will never be able to afford to rebuild.

I cannot believe Barbara Bush's remark insinuating that Houston was a great place for the evacuees since so many of them were . . ."well . . .underprivileged anyway . . ."

The soul of a country is revealed by how it cares for its aged and poor. For all of our Fundamentalist Christian chest-beating, our soul seems to have some dark spots.

WWJD?

Certainly NOT leave thousands without food, water, sanitary conditions and security.

BTW: Donate www.redcross.org and www.bestfriends.org - give for all fellow citizens: two-legged and four-legged ones.

That's what Jesus would do - and Moses and Buddha and Mohammed and the Goddess and even poor mortals like me.

Blessings to the survivors, the ones who didn't survive, the reporters who showed us the truth, the rescuers who keep trying, the Mayor of New Orleans (for being so truthful and blunt about his and his city's agony), and the people of all the Gulf coast who will, of course, rebuild.

The Jazz Funeral Procession for this area is put on permanent hold.