lunatics yelling in the streets, it's the end of the world, yes

[jaina]

I can't stop reading Katrina coverage. It's heartbreaking that things just seem to be degenerating further and further, and I don't think we've seen the worst yet. More than anything, though, I'm furious with the sanctimonious, self-righteous asshats looking down on the chaos in NO and squawking, "Why didn't they leave? There was a mandatory evacuation order! It's their fault! It's their own fault that they're in this situation!"

OH MY FUCKING GOD, YOU MORONS. Can we please just leave aside all the reasons why people might not have left (like say, oh, HAVING NO MEANS TO LEAVE!?) and just focus on the fact that these are our fellow HUMAN BEINGS who are suffering *terribly*? Can the blame and recriminations maybe wait a little while, and we can all just focus on saving lives, getting these people out of the city, and making sure they have somewhere to go? It just sickens me how some people have reacted to this, that their own need to feel superior has asserted itself in this incredibly disgusting way.

Of all the weeks for the Daily Show to be on hiatus. (It kind of disturbs me how dependent I've grown on Jon Stewart, but it helps, so for now, I'm not going to question it.)

ETA: Everyone, if you haven't already, please go and read interdictor for a firsthand look at the situation in New Orleans. It should be required reading for everyone on the Internet.

Comments

[ladylisse.livejournal.com]

I started crying when I saw the convention center footage. Those are parents with little babies and someone's grandma. Like hell they wouldn't have left if they'd had a choice.

I swear to God if anyone tries to turn this into some bullshit about divine punishment, I'm going to get violent.

[speshulduck.livejournal.com]

Didn't you hear? Falwell is all about gay rights now. Divine punishment is soooo 2001.

...

I'm crying even as I'm trying to make crass jokes to stop crying.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

I've had to limit myself to written web coverage because I can't stand watching the videos anymore. It's too much.

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

Thank God someone who is more interested in making certain people are all right than assigning blame. I've just ranted on people getting upset at politicians for not taking care of things. I don't care what they might have/should have/could have done. Let's take care of the people that need us right now rather than blaming them for not leaving (when some of them, perhaps many of them couldn't) and blaming the politicians cause they didn't 'stop it from happening'.

I just keep watching the coverage and praying for the people still left in those areas. We've got to do what we can to help them not blame them.

[bewitched822000.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this entry. I'm from New Orleans and that area and I had to evacuate with several friends on Saturday. It's horrifying right now down here. There using LSU's campus as both a morgue and shelter. People are looting all over the place and it just keeps getting worse. If you want to read more you can read my last two or so entries. But, seriously, as someone living through this right now with many of my friends no longer having homes to go back to I appreciated your thoughts.

[hokie.livejournal.com]

My first reaction was "Shit, I can't even begin to think about what it's like to be a refugee."

And if you think about it, it's completely understandable why someone would want to risk it not being the worst case scenario to not be put into that situation. There's really nothing that seems to bother us more than uncertainty, and for good reason. There are reasons that refugees typically have to be forced out, rather than fleeing of their own volition.

The problem, of course, is that it was the worst case scenario. For New Orleans, the levees breaking, letting Lake Porchartrain flood in, is probably a pseudo-death knell on the level of the 1900 Galveston earthquake: the city will survive, but it won't be the same. And I really can't fathom what all those people, with their lives completely shattered, are going to have to go through to try to piece them back together. My heart's certainly bleeding right now.

I saw, on MSNBC yesterday, edited footage that made me break down and cry. They showed pictures from the New Orleans Convention Center and then talked with the photojournalist who took the pictures. He said he saw two men who died of dehydration. There were no police or National Guardsmen anywhere. And this is the goddamned United States of America. I heard, perhaps incorrectly, that I-10 is open to the west. Why are we just standing there and letting people die in the streets for lack of water?

I do have to say, though, that it's times like this that tend to put the lie to anyone who claims human beings are ultimately driven by selfishness. There are those, sure, who take advantage of situations like this, and there are those who are indifferent, but when charity websites are completely jammed and people are offering to send supplies and give up their time and livelihood to go to New Orleans and help out, how can anyone be that cynical? That is, of course, why the Gandhiji quote you've got over there is so apt.

Anyway, if people want to help out, Habitat for Humanity is going to be stepping in, and some other charities:

http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=usw_hurricane_katrina (the one I'm personally getting involved with for those tragedy, phone number 1-800-525-7575)

Second Harvestor Food Banks: 1-800-344-8070

Baton Rouge Red Cross: 225-291-4533

[knitress.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I've had to stop watching CNN because I was freaking out. I keep thinking that my Grandpa would have never evacuated, and that evacuating Oma the last few years would have meant having a fragile, disoriented, incontinent old lady in a wheelchair in some Hampton Inn. If the nursing home hadn't had an evacuation plan, I'm sure that Mom would have stayed, and my brother would have stayed as well.

Right now I don't want to pass judgement on anybody. We've got people dying of *dehydration* in an American city. I want to do anything I can to help.

[gmtarkin.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree more; the situation is both criminal and heartbreaking. I compare to the response for Hugo and Andrew, and the disparity is unforgivable. Certainly NO is a unique situation, but the rest of the gulf coast is equally under-served, and for no good reason that I can understand. 36 hours after Hugo there were trucks pumping water, food stations, Red Cross and Salvation Army areas all over the Carolina coast. Every little mini-mall had a water truck. Why can't they truck water south of 90 to the coast? The area of devastation really isn't that wide in MS and AL. (Don't even get me started on the disparity with the Indian and Thai response to the tsunami last year.)

On the other hand, as someone from a family of the "I'll never evacuate" stamp, I admit that I'm using the events of Katrina to try to pressure my mother into changing her stance. Most people don't want to leave because they are afraid of getting stuck on the highway for hours, afraid someone will break into their home, afraid nothing will happen but they won't be able to get back for days. All true, but compared to this? I'd much rather my mother was in some Motel 6 in Columbia, annoyed, than at home with a dwindling supply of food and water, people roaming the streets, and who knows what else. People *should* evacuate, and the government should provide the transportation to help those who don't have cars. Instead, they issue the order and then leave it up to you to figure it out or ignore it as you see fit. There's no excuse for there being thousands of deaths in a hurricane -- almost all of them are preventable. The only possible good that could come of this is that people take those orders more seriously, and the states come up with plans to make it possible to evacuate.

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

Seriously, where are people seeing these sorts of things? Maybe it's because I only watch Fox News, but I haven't heard anyone say anything that fucking stupid. (At least on that topic. I've seen plenty of people complaining about how the aid system is racist and that's why it's slow. No, moron, it's slow because there is a lot of water, tons of debris, and while, yeah, FEMA should be used to flooding, there has NEVER been flooding like this. It's gonna take a while. And there are lots of black refugees because, surprise, New Orleans has a lot of black people there. Yeesh.) I haven't seen any coverage implying 'Well, they should have left sooner!' If anything, Fox (pretty typically) has been playing up the melodrama of those who couldn't leave, probably partially for pathos ratings but also because, well, it's true. There's been some debate over looting, that's about all (I say, yes, take out the looters who are grabbing 200 boxes of shoes or stripping the homes of people who let them stay the night, but as for the grocery store? Oh, for pity's sake. Let 'em have it.)

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

I've seen the reported sentiments from multiple commenters on multiple sites on the internet. I have not been watching TV for a number of reasons, chief among them that I find it too upsetting.

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

I suggest those people take a look at what New Orleans was like BEFORE the flood water hit--maybe watch some TV themselves, as some of those people who "refused to leave" have been on--Shep Smith asked a group on Tuesday where they were coming from and the lady said "The projects and there are more people still there who are old and sick and can't get out."

Who can blame people with no resources for not leaving? Cause people who live in the projects totally have access to cars and money and the stuff you'd've needed to evacuate easily.

People are stoopid.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, I've seen people say "Well they should have left anyway! They should have walked if they had to!" And they're apparently serious. Yes, because walking is a fantastic idea in the New Orleans sun and heat and will totally get you to safety in a reasonable amount of time!