I have read everything I can get my hands on regarding New Orleans.
I have watched videos, seen slideshows, downloaded articles and tried to educate and update myself on what was happening… here are some random thoughts….
Thought number 1 is that “It could have been us, it could have been me!” We drove past the Superdome many times, and hubby went to the Convention Centre for his convention many times… we know the waterfront boardwalk, where scared tourists are hiding from armed looters, afraid they will be shot, or raped. It’s so terrible, but of course you know that.
Thought number 2. Why isn’t Bush doing anything, and how can the American people vote this man in twice? That’s just stupid. I read somewhere that perhaps America is reaping what is sowed in relation to the weather and not signing the Greenhouse Treaty. Now I think that, indeed, America is reaping what she sowed, but in the form of an inept President, who’s “leadership quality” I could lift with my little finger. What leadership?
Thought number 3. Is this turning into a racist nightmare, where the struggling poor and black people are left to their own devices? And I don’t mean the looters, I mean the wretched souls in the Superdome, dying form thirst, literally. There is no excuse for this. No excuse.
Thought number 4. I pity the poor soldiers coming back from active duty in Iraq, to shoot their fellow countrymen. Ok, armed looters are the garbage of the earth, but as if these soldiers haven’t seen and done enough already!
Thought number 5. A seventeen-year-old schoolboy stole a school bus to save strangers and drove it for 7 hours to safety, in Texas. Now they are thinking of charging him with theft. For pity’s sake!
Thought number 6. When hubby and I were there, the levy was barely holding the water back, even without the spring snow melt. Locals even then expressed nervousness as the mighty Mississippi River bulged with her raging water. If they did move back to New Orleans, it would have to built up, and bugger the cost. What has this disaster cost already?
Last thought for today, at least. Bless New Orleans and all of her residents, and thankyou for making your city Americas most “un-American city”. We loved it, and will be back one day.
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6 comments:
I think Bush is a wanker of the highest order, having said that I dont think we can lay all the blame on him. Yes the buck stops with him I know. I believe him when he said its much worse than he could have imagined.
As for the looters I can understand them taking food water clothing etc. No one can justify taking tv's, sound equipment, or rape.
I,m not sure if its racist or apathy. If it where poor white how different would it be? Hopefully we won't find out.
Some people are saying its thier fault it happened,now that just dumb.
I think there will be more trouble cleaning up the mess, Where are they going to put all that rubbish and in the interim house hundreds of thousands of people? The winter is comming. Yes Patty its Very sad.
Infocow wrote: "The Governor of Louisiana is in charge of the National Guard..."
Huh? If it's called the NATIONAL Guard, why is a STATE Governor in charge of them? We must have a different system in Austalia.
Infocow wrote:"And what the hell does the Greenhouse Treaty have to do with a hurricane hitting the gulf coast of the US." My point was that someone had pointed out that the hurricans had grown in intensity, and global warming is affecting climates in all areas of the world, even in Australia, our droughts are getting more frequent, storms more severe, and so on.
Infocow wrote:"the state should have had the Corps of Engineers in to rebuild the levees. They knew they were weak every since the winter flooding of '93." Agreed! It was fairly obvious to our untrained tourist eyes that the locals were nervous as they watched the river rising, with all the winter melting snow still to flow through, yikes!
Infocow wrote:"Care to debate "Liberal/Democrat" verses Conservative/Republican" at some point?" No thanks, lol, I don't know enough about it, but I am happy to trade John Howard for one of yours any day. *cough
Infocow wrote:"For a city that wishes so damned hard to be 'UN-American,' why does it want to be American when the chips are down?" I don't think they want to be American, they want Americans to be human. It's hardly New Orleans fault they were first settled by the French and Spanish.
And last thoughts... thaks Infocow for sharing your insight on this blog, I welcome debate and discussion, it's healthy to air our views and see different sides to each argument. Not that I am arguing with you mind, lol. :)
Anyone else have any thoughts on this matter?
Patty I'm so glad you got the comments from Infocow. Now you can see what we are dealing with here. As you can see three or four of comments got very repetitive with the "media bashing" comments. Maybe he should have watched nothing but Fox News and then again they had unkind things to say about Bush also. I find that the GOP here in my area, when all else fails them, or Bush's ratings fall, they begin their lame rantings of media bashing and refering once again to Clinton. What does he have to do with the poor preformance of this inept president in this crisis. They knew for 3 days before Katrina hit that it would be a bad one. After the tsnaumi hit we had aid there in 24 hours but our own county they couldn't help until day 5???? Ah well I just sit and watch this administration crash and burn. I want a new bumper sticker that says. "Don't Blame me...." "I voted for Kerry".
Infocow said: "It is a bunch of people in a fairly backward state who for whatever reason decided to stay in a 'natural punch-bowl,' refusing to leave when it was clear that 3-days out the city was going to be clobbered by a catagory 5 hurricane.
Please tell us again HOW this is President Bush's fault and I will show you the seperation of Federal power and State rule. Crips, I hope you know more about wiping your feet than you do about history, politics and civics."
Now firstly, please don't make any comments personal please, this is a very happy site were we are all good mates, and we are very diverse people, *wipes brow, but we love our internet, our own countries, our freedom to say and do (within reason) what we like, there is no nasty stuff here folks.....we absolutely welcome new comments and will hold out our arms to bid you a very warm welcome....
Now... It's my inderstanding that Bush simply flew over the place and said Goodness me, or whatever, of course he is not responsible for the residents staying there (would I be prepared to leave my own home in case of a cyclone, where would I go, would I be better to stay and batten down and help others? *ponders) and of course a lot of the residents that stayed were either too poor, too frail, too disadvantaged eg, no car, no money, no legs/health/wheelchair/else to go..... hmmm....some of us live in areas that are unhealthy (natural punchbowl) because of economic reasons, family ties, whatever, eg Brisbane is the Asthma Capitol of the World, and my son has been hospitalised twice for asthma, but we didnt leave, we dealt with it) but surelyit was Bushs job to make sure contingencies were in place eg, army/water/food/transport/medical supplies?
*shugs....wonderful to see on our telly over here that helicopters were moving in to evacuate, day 6. *claps. :) Keep it clean, keep it nice, keep it coming.
Ps. I know what you mean about the media, they love a good horror story, because it sells, I also worked in media for many years...
ppl love to react and bite when it rubs too close to the bone to themselves personally, eh? lol
Yes, it's nightmarish stuff over there.
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