TheBanyanTree: A Ripple in the Force

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I feel like there’s been a huge tear in the fabric which holds humanity
together.  I can hardly bear to watch the suffering in New Orleans while I
sit nice and comfortable in my own home leading my typical normal life.  How
would I react to such mind numbing horror?

How can we, as Americans, allow this horror to take place before our very
eyes and do so little to help.  Oh, sure, we send money, but where are the
troops?  Where are the supplies?  If the news organizations can get into the
city, why can’t the rescuers?  Why can’t they do food and water drops from
helicopters?

Why weren’t they more prepared?  They knew this hurricane was coming for
several days.  It was a category 5 storm.  They knew New Orleans would
probably flood.  Why didn’t they have buses and checkpoints and food and
water ready to go as soon as the storm was over?  This is AMERICA.  We have
a “can do” attitude that’s amazing.  Why did it break down here?

We are watching a city dying without its death being caused by war.  New
Orleans is a cesspool.  Would anyone want to live there again?

Some fed guy was on the news last night saying he understood what those
people were going through.  And I’m thinking that this guy is in Washington,
DC, wearing a suit, and will be able to go home and sleep in his own bed,
and he’s saying he knows what it’s like to sit on a roof of a house for
three or four days in the sweltering heat with no food and water?  What
planet does he live on????

Poor Bush had to cut short his vacation, and his bike riding, to go back to
Washington, instead of going to New Orleans, and now, today, he’s finally
going to take a few hours to have a carefully orchestrated photo op I’m sure
in a safe place, and try to look concerned about people’s lives being torn
apart.  I would sure like to see him help evacuate some people out of New
Orleans, but he doesn’t have the guts to around people who are suffering and
angry.  He’s a “yes” man and only wants “yes” people around him.  Where’s
Cheney?  Where’s Rumsfeld?  Where’s Rove?  Where’s anyone?  They’re all in
Washington going about their lives just like they always do.

This isn’t a political tragedy like 9/11 where they could point a finger at
those nasty Arabs attacking America.  This is a natural disaster with no one
to blame.  And Americans weren’t prepared.  Americans are watching people
die within their own country and we can’t or won’t do a darn thing about it.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.  ~Mark Twain